Today’s post comes to you from Eleanor Duggan
Remembering Through Panels with Year of the Rabbit
After reading Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon, I became deeply intrigued with Cambodian history. Part of that curiosity came from the realisation of how little I knew about this chapter of the world history page; another part came from wanting to hear more voices and stories that are too often overlooked. That curiosity eventually led me to Year of the Rabbit, a graphic novel memoir by Tian Veasna.
Unlike reading Slow Noodles and other “foreign” literature that often require a great deal of imagination and occasionally a quick web search to fully understand the context due to the lack of knowledge and understanding of their culture and history, the illustrations in Year of the Rabbit immerse readers in the story easily. The combination of images and texts makes unfamiliar aspects of Khmer culture far more accessible and help me understand unfamiliar terms, settings, and experiences with ease.
However, similar to Slow Noodles when the settings were both during Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Year of the Rabbit is another haunting, sad, yet deeply human memoir that captures the terror and devastation of life between 1975 – 1979 in Cambodia. Veasna tells the story through the eyes of his own family and transforms a historical tragedy into an emotional reading journey for me.
The artwork perfectly captures the emptiness of abandoned cities and endless rice fields, while close-up expressions show the exhaustion, fear, and grief vividly. The silence sometimes makes more sounds than a series of words. Veasna also includes maps, diagrams, explanations of Khmer Rouge ideology, and etc, throughout the book to help readers understand the historical context.
Both Slow Noodles and Year of the Rabbit remind us that history is lived by ordinary people who showed resilience and courage to survive the impossible. Both books are difficult to read at times but they are also thoughtful and important. For readers who are interested in history, especially histories that are often overlooked or less widely taught, this is an excellent book to start.
Read my previous review of Slow Noodles here — and see Chantha Nguon‘s website, Slow Noodles here.
Written by Tian Veasna, translated from French by #NameTheTranslator Helge Dascher
2020, Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN: 9781770463769
Originally published in French by Gallimard in three volumes: L’année du lièvre, Tome 1 : Au revoir Phnom Penh (2011), Tome 2, Ne vous inquiétez pas (2013), Tome 3 : Un nouveau départ (2016)
Published in Khmer in Cambodia by Sipar (2017) as:
- ឆ្នាំថោះ (ភាគ១) – ISBN: 9789924340102
- ឆ្នាំថោះ (ភាគ 2)– ISBN: 9789924340225.
Eleanor Duggan is a passionate children’s book reader, a storytelling enchantress, an aspiring globetrotter, a part-time book crafter, and an impassioned foodie who is a cooking disaster. She is more known as an international school Teacher-Librarian, Founding Chair of the Toucan Award, the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Section Secretary. She is a Taiwanese with a Belgian soul and is currently enjoying her life as a citizen of the world with her daughter and their 2 one-of-a-kind cats. You may find her via The Third Culture Librarian
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of GLLI.
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