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The Fixer: A Story of Sarajevo
Posted 16 Apr 2007
Writer: Joe Sacco
Artist: Joe Sacco
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Hueso Taveras
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Very rarely are there works that highlight political themes with an
honesty and ferocity that changes our perception of the world and
ourselves. John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and Upton
Sinclair’s The Jungle are but two examples that create
unforgettable worlds with keen eyes focused on the people behind the
stories. In The Fixer: A Story of Sarajevo, Joe Sacco continues
this tradition, this time in the medium of comics.
“Joe Sacco continues to reinforce his place as a comics
master.”
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Comic book journalist Joe Sacco, author of the groundbreaking comic
series Palestine, penned a tome of misery and humanity with The Fixer:
A Story From Sarajevo. Sacco returns to a personal and potent moment
in twentieth century history that is overlooked by major media: the
Bosnian War.
In a deserted hotel lobby Joe Sacco meets Neven, a chain-smoking,
hard-drinking native of Sarajevo, Bosnia. Neven guides the author to
smoky café bars, pool halls filled with regulars and
debris-cluttered streets that were scenes of war. A former member of a
paramilitary outfit and with connections to nefarious people, Neven
was in a ripe position to “find [for] war correspondents the
human tragedies that make news editors happy.” In other words a
“fixer.” From arranging prostitutes for foreign
journalists to paying locals with beer to retell their post-war
ordeals, the moral implications of a fixer are dubious at best.
Although the title implies otherwise, The Fixer: A Story From
Sarajevo is an amalgamation of stories. Neven serves as the center
of the tragic maelstrom and through him we get to know some of the
“defenders of Sarajevo,” such as Ismet Bajramovic, a.k.a.
Celo. With a history in drug dealing and explosive violence, he became
a charismatic paramilitary leader. And Musan Topalovic, a.k.a. Caco, a
former folk musician with no criminal past also turned into a
paramilitary leader whose “exploits became the stuff of legend and
myth.” The war-torn city becomes a character with images of a desolate
Holiday Inn splayed against a bombed out section of the city. Against
this backdrop, Neven, the fixer, scavenges the terrain for physical
and psychological sustenance.
Sacco, the principal narrator, crisscrosses through time: from 2001
to 1991 to 1995 with the point of view shifting seamlessly from the
first person to the second and back. At times the panels swim across
the page while at others they appear like bruised photographs tossed
in a forgotten scrapbook. The overall effect is a powerful mosaic of
exploitation, absurdity, humor and violence. The author’s obsessive
attention to the minutiae, which is evident in his meticulous
crosshatching, is comparable to his drive to “get the
story.” He gives
as much care to the stitching in a sweater as he does to the sullen
faces in a crowd. Although Joe Sacco distances himself from the fully
rendered subject of the book by caricaturizing himself, the constant
acknowledgment of his presence with simple lines and textures is a
favorable change from the “objectivity” that most journalist assume.
In the end, this black and white, hard-covered, graphic novel
presents a malleable world of grays where everyone’s goal is
survival at others’ cost. With The Fixer: A Story From
Sarajevo, Joe Sacco continues to reinforce his place as a comics
master and journalist with each of his works meriting examination and
celebration.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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