The Arab of the Future 2: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1984-1985: A Graphic Memoir

I enjoyed all these "graphic novels" so much. I read them all and am in the process of reading the fifth in the original French because it hasn't been translated yet. Great insight into the life of a Syrian whos mother is French and moves back and forth between the worlds of Islamic schools and France. Entertaining and educational.

I bought it after listening to an interview with the author on France24. My 8 to 14 year olds absolutely love the series and avidly read them all.

A continuation of Riad Sattouf's graphic memoir of childhood. In this installment, which covers Riad at ages 6 - 7, the Sattouf family--Riad, his parents, and his baby brother--are living in a small Syrian village near Homs, where his grandmother lives as well as a number of other relatives (it almost seems as if everyone nearby is a cousin, aunt, or uncle). Riad starts school, and many scenes are set there, where corporal punishment--delivered with something that looks like a truncheon, generally as a THWACK! across the hands--is arbitrary and commonplace, and much of the education seems to be pure indoctrination. For instance, as Riad recounts it, the very first lesson is learning the national anthem ("Defenders of the Homeland, peace be with you...The home of pan-Arabism, a sacred sanctuary...Our spirit is noble and our past glorious, and our martyrs' souls are our guardians...."), and before a presidential election, the class is told, "we must all say yes to our president Hafez Al-Assad [father of the current president, Bashar Al-Assad]...So you must tell your parents to vote yes, of course, because President Assad is the father of the Syrian nation." Riad afterwards reports, capturing his childhood innocence, "On February 10, 1985, Hafez Al-Assad was reelected with a 100-percent yes vote, a world record!" Assad, by the way, was the only candidate. There are other memories of these schooldays--some that seem quite ordinary and pleasant; others that will likely strike readers as much darker (e.g., playing at war against Israel, with cries of "Let's kill as many Jews as we can!...Yaay! All the Jews are dead!"). And there are many scenes set at home, where Riad's love and respect for his father are quite evident, but where he seems not to fully sense the magnitude of the tension between his French-born mother and his father, educated in France and with seemingly ambivalent feelings about traditional and modern values. The mother is generally in the background in this story, but when she emerges--for instance, immediately and forcefully condemning the honor killing of a unwed village woman who became pregnant, while Riad's father vacillates about reporting the crime--it seems apparent that conflicts are going to be a larger part of the story going forward. Another telling scene takes place late in the book when on a summer vacation in France to visit his grandparents, Riad visits the Euromarche, a superstore along the lines, I suppose, of a Target. He is overwhelmed by the selection toys, electronics, groceries, etc, and he concludes, "For me, it was the best place on earth." This is in contrast to the fact that when his father wants to purchase some luxuries for the home (to his mother, necessities, like a gas oven), he has to resort to the black market, where goods are smuggled in from Lebanon. During the same trip to get the oven, he also happily buys a VCR--a Betamax. Ulp. Book 3 in this series was published in France in Oct 2016 but will apparently not be available in the US until Aug 2018. I look forward to it!

I am a Syrian man of the same age as the author, and like him, I’ve spent my youth moving between Syria and abroad. I can say confidently that the author beautifully captured the world of my childhood in a way I never thought possible. He brought back beautiful memories, impressions, an oddities. From the flying plastic bags, to the shouting match among the inter-city taxi drivers, to the intricate body language of men sipping tea while strategically displaying their smuggled fancy cigarette packets. It’s just an amazing piece of art, and a historical documentation of an era.

I wanted to buy volume one when it came out but decided to wait until volume 2 was released - I live in Australia and it takes forever to have it sent over and costs a fortune. So, I received both volumes at the same time and whipped through them in a day. Now I realize that volumes 3, 4, and 5 are in the pipeline. I hate it; I'm not a patient guy. The story: gut retching. Painfully honest. Frankly, I'd fear for the author's safety. I pray that the title is ironic and the it does not depict the Arab of the future but Sattouf makes it quite clear that change in the Arab world just isn't in the cards.

A brilliant, moving and funny story of the author's vivid childhood memories when his insecure but caring father takes the family from France to his poor home village in Syria. Sattouf's drawings and words bring to life his six year old feelings and fears, as well as his very specific memories of the streets, his school, and the children and adults he encounters in Syria and on vacation in France. A classic which I will re-read many times. Everyone should read it.

S'good. Good, nice, tight, compact little book, good GN narrative, intriguing storyline (for my money, more idiosyncratic and insightful than Persepolis...)... buy it...

A tour de force look at life in the Arab world from the perspective of a little boy with a Syrian father and a French mother. Rings true!

Read both volumes, I like them. Good to understand the Arab world and where all this blood and hatred originated...

Consigliato!!!!! Splendido affresco su un' epoca ormai perduta della storia recente della Siria... Indimenticabili i vari personaggi che vi compaiono.

Die Lieferung war so schnell wie erwartet, und das Buch von Sattouf in toll! Rührend, humorvoll... Mein Freund kommt aus Syrien, und war auch voll begeistert, viele bekannten Details zu erkennen :)

Just as good as volume 1, with deep insights into growing up in the Middle East. I don’t know how his mum lasted that long there…

Igual que el primero, esta segunda entrega es buena. Vale mucho la pena leerlo. Definitivamente compraré la tercera parte .