Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D. Meandering and experimental but surprisingly evocativeĪ beautifully heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s ( Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, etc.) childhood experience of incarceration in a World War II camp for Japanese Americans. Taken together, her many memories create a distinct sense of time, place and emotion. Abirached does not use tones or shading, but her ornate patterns soften the stark contrasts created by her bold lines and her frequent use of black to fill negative space. The black-and-white illustrations and inventive layouts ably convey the contrasts of the text.

In this follow-up, Abirached takes inspiration from French experimental writer and filmmaker Georges Perec and forgoes a traditional narrative structure in favor of a catalog of childhood memories, almost all beginning with “I remember.” Her memories juxtapose mundane details, such as the “tchic” sound that cassette tapes made when shaken and the three layers that made up old Kit Kat wrappers, with haunting reminders of wartime, such as her brother’s shrapnel collection and the bullet holes in the family car. In her earlier graphic memoir, A Game for Swallows (2012), she focused on a single evening when she and her brother anxiously awaited their parents’ return. Abirached, who grew up in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, shares childhood memories in this unconventional graphic memoir.īorn in 1981, Abirached grew up surrounded by the realities of war: Her family’s home was close to the demarcation line between East and West Beirut.

I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached