How The World Was: A California Childhood
by Emmanuel Guibert
Buy on AmazonIn 1994, French cartoonist Emmanuel Guibert befriended an American veteran named Alan Cope and began creating his new friend's graphic biography. Alan's War was the surprising and moving result: the story of Cope's experiences as an American GI in France during World War II. How the World Was is Emmanuel Guibert's moving return to documenting the life of his friend. Cope died several years ago, as Guibert was just beginning work on this book, but Guibert has kept working to commit his friend's story to paper. Cope grew up in California during the great depression, and this remarkable graphic novel details the little moments that make a young man's life...while capturing the scope of America during the great depression.…
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"In a follow-up to Alan’s War, his celebrated book about an ordinary man’s experiences in World War II, Emmanuel Guibert illustrates a second installment of Alan Cope’s reminiscences about mid-20th-century life. Once again, Guibert renders the ordinary extraordinary: He depicts youthful scenes that are perfectly familiar, even though they occurred three-quarters of a century ago, such as rolling around the neighborhood on metal skates or playing with local kids in a vacant lot. As in the previous book, Guibert’s silky ink lines and delicately juxtaposed grays make the most quotidian moments feel special."
NPR Books We Love — 2014 · apps.npr.org