One Potato Review

Dark and unflinching, until a regrettably saccharine conclusion. Though not explicit about the details, this is the account of one family’s experience during the Los Angeles riots of 1991, following the beating of Rodney King, whose famously televised plea gets finally repackaged – with cats. Still, there’s a lot to marvel at here: the looters are rightfully menacing, and the smoke that Bunting describes rising up to this family’s apartment makes the bedlam more personal and more immediate than it might have been. Most remarkable, though, is this artwork by Diaz, who alternates Gaugin-ish looking portraits – of this child, his mother, their neighbors and even some of the looters – with layers of colorful bric-a-brac – from matches to scattered snack food to coat-hangers looted from a neighboring dry-cleaner – which lend to this narrative the chaos – and complications – or something worth remembering. For older, more sophisticated readers. Or anyone who likes to collage.