“Alan’s War” by Emmanuel Guibert
2009 is off to a promising start in books with Emmanuel Guibert’sAlan’s War, a comic-book memoir of a U.S. G.I. during and after WWII. Originally published in French, the new English translation is in a typically spiffy edition from First Second books.
Guibert met Cope in Europe. As their friendship grew, Cope told his war stories to Guibert, who felt compelled to transform them into a comics narrative. Guibert’s black and white art is deceptively simple looking, but it contains a great deal of atmosphere and emotion. Cope is a likable everyman, and his memories unfold in spare vignettes, though many of them loop back and reappear later. As Guibert hoped to make clear from the title, the book is not a history of the war, but one man’s experience of it.
At the age of 18, like all young Americans, I was drafted.
I took some exams. I got a perfect score on the radio operator aptitude test.
And then they put us on a train.
Cope’s optimism, resilience, adaptability, and ability to make friends all make for a touching and engaging personal history.