Walking Wounded

Starred review from November 15, 2015

The term post-traumatic stress disorder shoehorns into a cold, clinical category the horrors of an eternal midnight suffered by many Iraq War veterans, who have a high suicide rate. Notre Dame professor Morel filmed this tragic legacy in his award-winning documentary On the Bridge (2010). Now he chronicles the filming experience and how it changed him, as well as seven veterans who were profiled, through a sort of mutual dialysis of trauma. Lisa, who treated torture victims at Abu Ghraib, "sees" Iraqi prisoners everywhere. Jeff, after shooting two Iraqis, wore their dog tags to honor them and would wake up screaming. All struggle with ghosts. Mael's masterly art relies on black and white for Morel's reporting, and blotchy orange/reds for flashbacks and visions. Thinking of Abu Ghraib, Morel (himself a character) imagines tumbling into a staircase labyrinth, the stairs fragmenting like glass shards against blood-like smears. While not explicitly gory, the visuals convey creeping dread and a filter of terror clouding reality. VERDICT Suggesting that war creates an existential rupture in the souls of those who fight, this powerful account will enlighten adults and teens willing to set aside pat answers.--M.C.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Several years ago, Morel, a French-born filmmaker on the Notre Dame faculty, directed a documentary about traumatized Iraq War veterans. Here he teams with French artist Mael to recount his interviews with the survivors, a process that was emotionally devastating not just to the subjects but to Morel as well. One vet's doctor discourages Morel from interviewing his patient, warning that this film could kill him. But Morel and the vets doggedly pursue the project, and as they tell their harrowing stories, they display a bravery akin to their courage on the battlefield. Mael's realistic, illustrative drawings use gray tones to depict the vets' grim existence back home and blood-red washes for the Iraq flashbacks. The dialogueeven if it's taken from real lifeis frequently melodramatic and the politics bluntly expressed, but the book's didactic nature doesn't diminish the power of its antiwar message. As the Iraq War recedes, works such as this serve as a much-needed prod to a society that's all too eager to put its misbegotten Middle East misadventure behind it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)