Still soaked

There are some events that are simply too immense to be fully understood unless they are viewed through the lens of the individual experience. We know that often war and genocide fall into this category; disaster is a third event that requires a personal narrative to be fully grasped. Hurricane Katrina was nothing but a disaster, from beginning to—well, we can’t say “end,” can we? Not while New Orleans is still a wreck and people from the Gulf states are still displaced. Graphic novelist Josh Neufeld followed the tales of a number of characters: a woman trapped in the hospital with family members, another trying to save his convenience store, some from the convention center and some who evacuated. The drawings are exquisite, and fully capture the suffering wrought not just by the storm, but by the lack of rescue and aid. A.D. is a remarkable accomplishment as documentary and as art.