The Boy from Clearwater Book One by Yu Pei-Yun, illustrated by Zhou Jian-Xin and translated by Lin King is a memoir that leans towards the poetic. The showing of things could have been more graphic (as there were beatings, execution, etc), but is not necessarily lacking as you understand what is happening. The two parts (the early years before 1950 and then the ten years after 1950) are nicely split up, allowing for the colors pink, blue along with black and white, to play their roles in each section; setting the overall tone of things happening and to come.
However, while I enjoyed the graphic novel immensely, there could have been more, but at the same time there is too much, and yet, just the right amount. This contradiction made it an experience book. And this is an experience that nobody will be experiencing the same way. It is also a thinking book. It made me think about how we don’t know alot about Taiwan, how we assume that they were “good guys” as Japan and China ruled over them (but many of the people who were guards, informants, etc. were from Taiwan). I also learned how history does not just affect one set of people. I thought about how the brother is the one who accidentally turns our main character into the police, and how he was able to get packages from home (how many prisoners have nothing? How many packages never made it?). Though there seemed to be comradery between the prisoners, was there anything negative (arguments, informants, etc)? And perhaps most importantly two things: The first was how reading is powerful (our main character was basically arrested because of a book club). And two, he did not know a lot of what he was accused of (Chinese communist spy), but because he was told how to deny it, he was educated on the subject he would give 10 years of his life for. (Cue book two to see if it affected him in the ways I think it could have.)
The illustrations are also poetic without being too flowery, but some can be a bit “romantic.” What was not romantic was how due to the society changes, we are bounced around with people’s names (one person could have at least three names, depending on which language is being used). There is a color code to help with this, but it could be a little confusing. Overall, this is a strong book that cannot be used as a “pure history” teller, but there is much in the way of history as well (such as how the Korean War would affect Taiwan in ways we might not have thought of). I liked it, am not sure how I really feel about it, but know it was something I needed to read.