Alan's War
By Emmanuel Guibert


You never know what can happen when you ask a stranger for directions.
In the case of illustrator Emmanuel Guibert, then 30, it led to a firm friendship with the 69-year-old Alan Cope, an American who married and settled down in France. And their conversations led to this vividly written and drawn biography.
In 1943, during World War II, an 18-year-old Cope is drafted by the United States army. The most dangerous things, though, happen outside combat. He almost gets killed by a falling tree during training and just misses being crushed under a tank.
When he is eventually sent to France on a mission in February 1945, the war is ending and he does not see much combat action.
As a soldier, he is not perfect as he sometimes breaks rules. As a person, he can be stubborn as well. But he is also open-minded and generous, striking up friendships with some Germans, even though fraternising is forbidden.
The last part of the book takes a rather sharp turn when Cope has an epiphany at 55, realising he has never lived his life fully.
He sees in society “overcrowding by too many dogmas, false values, and wrong thinking; a kind of psychic illness that afflicts the human race and prevents people from knowing what to do with their lives”.
It prompts him to reconnect with the people in his life as a way of seeking closure.
While Guibert’s black-and-white ink washes are beautiful and bring Cope’s story to life by evoking landscapes, personalities and situations, they are never intrusive.
The tale is fully Cope’s, warts and all, and it is his voice we hear. This is an easy, intimate conversation between friends and you feel privileged to be able to sit in.

If you like this, read: The Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
See Guibert’s deft touch in a different light with this comic romance between a mummy and an Egyptologist’s daughter set in Victorian London.
(ST)