Algeria Is Beautiful Like America by Olivia Burton, Mahi Grand

​    I’m not a huge fan of memoirs, graphic or otherwise, but love, love armchair traveling. And this story was the kind of memoir that takes you places, specifically to Algeria. You get to follow the author along on her journey of figuring out where she comes from, where her family comes from.
     Where her family comes from are the mountains of Algeria, where they lived as The Black Foot or Pied Noir, the settlers of French Algeria who fled the country following the war of independence. The author has her family’s recollections and some photos, but it doesn’t seem enough, so she goes for the firsthand experience to see if she can reconcile the nostalgia tinted pastoral beauty of the land with the sociopolitical crises that followed.
     It ends up something of a mixed experience. The land is lovely, the people are welcoming, but there’s definitely a very different quality of life than the one the author grew up with, different mentality, different mores, etc.
      And then, the main thing, of course, is reconciling the colonial politics of it all, for a descendant of the oppressors, if only technically. Definitely a lot of food for thought there.
      It all makes for a compelling and interesting read. And then there’s the art. Normally I prefer color, but this book works exceptionally well in black and white. Really lovely art with excellent character drawing, expressive faces and all. Not at all cartoonish like so many memoirs out there. Overall, very good, both contextually and visually. Well worth a read. Recommended.