{"id":86351,"date":"2019-04-11T10:33:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T00:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/?p=86351"},"modified":"2019-04-11T10:33:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T00:33:13","slug":"the-arab-of-the-future-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/2019\/04\/11\/the-arab-of-the-future-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Arab of the Future, by Riad Sattouf: book review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/a>I\u2019m not a big fan of graphic novels, but sometimes they are the perfect way to tell a rich and complex story. The Arab of the Future<\/em> (L\u2019Arabe du Future<\/em>) is one such tale\u2014the story of author Riad Sattouf\u2019s childhood in the Middle East, as seen through the innocent eyes of a child.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Arab of the Future: book of the moment<\/span><\/h3>\n

There are four volumes<\/a> (so far) of this autobiography and they are entertaining and easy to read. All have been bestsellers in France and translated into many languages. They cover Sattouf\u2019s life up to the age 14, from his earliest memories through adolescence, and the picture they draw of life in different countries\u2014including France\u2014is fascinating.<\/p>\n

Sattouf\u2019s parents met in college, fell in love and got married. So far, so normal. But this was no ordinary couple\u2014she was quiet and bookish, from a rural town in Brittany, while he was a flamboyant Pan-Arabist from Syria who was out to change the world. And his passion would take the couple to live throughout North Africa and the Middle East with their growing family in tow.<\/p>\n

Moving, finding home, moving again<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/a>The story begins in 1980 when Sattouf is two years old\u2014a small boy, delicate and blond. His world is turned upside down when his father accepts an offer to teach in Libya, then run by the dictator Muammar Gaddafi.<\/p>\n

Gaddafi has grand plans, to create a new society populated by \u201cArabs of the future,\u201d but the reality of life in Libya is more mundane.<\/p>\n

Food is sometimes scarce and you have to watch your belongings\u2014private property is illegal, so if you aren\u2019t careful, another family will move into your home.<\/p>\n

This happens to Sattouf\u2019s family, one of the reasons they leave the country after a few years.They end up in Syria, in the home village of Sattouf\u2019s father. This is during the regime of the dictator Hafez al-Assad and it\u2019s a brutal place, with vicious anti-Semitism and routine violence, including the occasional honor killing. But it\u2019s also a place of love and warmth for Sattouf, especially in the homes of his grandmother and aunts.<\/p>\n

The Syrian society of Sattouf\u2019s childhood, like Libya\u2019s, is very different from our own, and this brings out the strength and beauty of Sattouf\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

While we as readers are sometimes shocked by what takes place, Sattouf the child narrator never is. He\u2019s just describing his day-to-day life, and he does so in a matter-of-fact way because for him this is all normal. He\u2019s like most of us\u2014what happens to us as children seems normal then because that\u2019s all we know. It\u2019s refreshing (though sometimes disturbing) to see these different cultures presented in such a non-judgmental way.<\/p>\n

The Arab of the Future: life in France<\/span><\/h3>\n

Eventually Sattouf\u2019s father takes a job in Saudi Arabia and his mother refuses to go. She moves with the kids back to France and Sattouf has to adjust to life in yet another new country. France is in many ways just as foreign to him as Libya and Syria had been, with its own strange customs and with its own casual cruelties. The fourth volume of the series ends with a shocking development that will leave readers wanting more.<\/p>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

For those intimidated by the idea of reading a book in French, these are a great place to start\u2014there aren\u2019t a lot of words, the vocabulary isn\u2019t complicated, and the pictures help tell the story. And what a story! Check out Volume One, in French or English, and I suspect you\u2019ll keep coming back for more.<\/p>\n

\n

Have you read any of the four volumes of ‘The Arab of the Future’? Eager to take a look now?<\/strong> Let us know what you think in the comments section below!<\/p>\n

\n
Image credits
\n1. via Amazon<\/a>
\n2. Muammar al-Gaddafi<\/a>, by Jesse B. via Wikipedia
\n3. Riad Sattouf<\/a>, by Selbymay via Wikipedia<\/address>\n
To buy: The Arab Of The Future by Riad Sattouf<\/a><\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discover ‘The Arab of the Future’ – a rich and complex graphic novel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12105,"featured_media":86356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[561,1116],"tags":[1288,1472,2499,3620,4773,4851,5231,7969,8005,8006,8007,8008,121],"class_list":["post-86351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-literature-and-theatre","tag-french-literature","tag-francophone","tag-autobiography","tag-middle-east","tag-best-sellers","tag-francophone-writers","tag-syria","tag-francophile-book-review","tag-riad-sattouf","tag-the-arab-of-the-future","tag-libya","tag-graphic-novel","tag-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}