Structure

Palestine is divided into nine chapters preceded by two forewords. The story follows Joe Sacco's journey through the Middle East, but the narrative is also broken up with many panels devoted to the interviewees' stories. The graphic novel is fragmentary and episodic yet linear; Sacco does not always show how he got from point A to B or how he made the acquaintance of new friends or interviewees, leaving the readers to draw their own conclusions. The author does not place the importance in long introductions because there are so many interviewees in the novel. This structure makes the impression that the Palestinian stories are universal; these people are unique but their suffering is common. There is a repetition in the experiences of the interviewees to convey how ubiquitous their stories are. By the same reasoning, the timeline of the novel jumps back and forward chronologically and...