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Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir
Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir | Riad Sattouf
31 posts | 41 read | 36 to read
The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his fatherIn striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria--but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation.Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents; his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. The ultimate outsider, Riad, with his flowing blond hair, is called the ultimate insult Jewish. And in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace.Brimming with life and dark humor, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth and texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East, and also introduces a master cartoonist in a work destined to stand alongside Maus and Persepolis."
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Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
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Mehso-so

6 years after, I read it again. This time I'll downgrade it to a so-so. At the time it was a soft pick. I'll be reading the rest of the series. Always interesting to see how things evolve.

It's always hard to judge a memoir...
I feel on the fence about this one: while I like Riad Sattouf's candid honesty and his childlike look on his surroundings, his father's behavior and some other behaviors in this book are quite hard to stomach.

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Auntynanny
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Pickpick

This book was really interesting. I learned a lot about Libya and Syria during this period. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

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JanuarieTimewalker13
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Pickpick


Interesting memoir. This installment is Riad as a small child, born in France, lives in Libya and then Syria. His dad is pretty awful. TW: Animal abuse. Definitely culture shock for me. I‘m definitely getting volume 2.#graphicmemoir

JanuarieTimewalker13 2019 book 46. Ughhhh!!! My library doesn‘t have volume 2🙁 5y
Dragon 😻 5y
Leftcoastzen 😻 5y
55 likes3 stack adds3 comments
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Simona
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Mission completed, I‘m done with the #Booked2019 See you next year😘😂

My pick for Graphic Novel was in Slovenian translation, so if you are interested - in the tag is in English. My favorite from this quarter is Old Drift by Namwali Serpell - rich family/history story, set in Zambia and seasoned with the pinch of magical realism.

alisiakae Way to go!! 🎉🎉 5y
Megabooks Awesome!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 5y
Cinfhen And she‘s done it again 😘😘😘can‘t wait to see you back on Jan 1, 2020 😜 5y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Fantastic job @Simona — another great year of prompts is in the boooooks! 🎉🎉👊🏻♥️📚 5y
Simona Thank you 😊 @4thhouseontheleft @Megabooks @BarbaraTheBibliophage I‘m patiently waiting for new prompts @Cinfhen 😘 5y
55 likes5 comments
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Simona
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Pickpick

My pick for #ComicOrGraphicNovel is this graphic memoir by Riad Sattouf. He is the child of the interracial marriage (mother is from France and father is Syrian) and that brings his exposure to cultural difference. They were living in France, Libya, Syria and Sattouf in a humorous, witty way shows all these differences, as an observer without prejudices.

#Booked2019

Cinfhen Sounds interesting 6y
Simona @Cinfhen It‘s a good graphic novel, I like it more than 6y
Cinfhen Ill look for it!!! I‘m not great with GN but sometimes the media format works really well 6y
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alisiakae This sounds good! 6y
Simona @Cinfhen I‘m not huge fan either, but this was good! 6y
Simona @4thhouseontheleft It is good and this is only the first volume. I will definitely read the others too. 6y
72 likes6 comments
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Creadnorthey
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Pickpick

This book gives a great insight into the euro-Arabic experience- mostly taking place in the Arab world. The author‘s eye is keen and the drawings most hilarious, the text, from the child‘s, Riad, POV, has a tone of innocent naïveté that in light of history is a bit foreboding. Looking forward to volume 2!

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Creadnorthey
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Ok I‘m reading three books at the moment- this being one of them. The other two are O pioneers - Americana at it‘s finest, and a brilliant hard core Sci-Fi novel, Death‘s End. It hit me today what they all have in common... any Litten brave enough to guess? Comment below!

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BrownGirlReading
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Pickpick

This is the best graphic novel and part 4 should be released very soon..... 😆 This series has been translated into many languages.

JanuarieTimewalker13 I loved volume one!! I think I found out about this from your YouTube channel! Thank you! 5y
11 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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BookInMyHands
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Bailedbailed

I‘m usually a fan of graphic novel memoirs, but I was not enjoying this one. I guess I was looking for something more than satire and I didn‘t feel like finishing it.

#Letsgetgraphicweeklongmarathon

59 likes1 stack add
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cristiana_de_sousa
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Pickpick

Uma história com uma perspectiva diferente e muito importante! ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Chelsibno
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Pickpick

In his #graphicnovel #memoir, Sattouf relates his early childhood memories of France, Libya, and Syria in the 70s and 80s. The child of a Syrian father and a French mother, Sattouf witnesses the cultural differences of his different homes with a child's innocence. His straightforward artwork and text allows readers to better understand the culture shock Sattouf would experience with each move. I'm eager to read Part II of this memoir.

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Chelsibno
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1. Kansas
2. A friend talked about it on Facebook.
3. Jurassic Park
4. Yes, my hometown holds a turtle race every year during our county fair. We keep the turtles in an outdoor terrarium during the Summer and then release them back into the wild after fair is over.
@saguarosally #welcomelitten

saguarosally Ever win the turtle race? 8y
Chelsibno I won a couple of times. 8y
BarbaraTheBibliophage That race sounds fantastic!! 8y
43 likes3 comments
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SuperPunkNinja
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Library #bookhaul! 📚😀

TobeyTheScavengerMonk Going to be hopefully not rude but quite possibly pedantic and say that Death: The Time of Your Life will be included in The Complete Death. Upside - They are amazing and you will love them! 8y
57 likes2 comments
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RealLifeReading
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Trying to read but someone keeps distracting me....
he just ran off with my book and put it on the shelf.

AnnieReads 😂😂 8y
kspenmoll 😊 8y
119 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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TheBookStacker
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How I plan to spend my day. My boyfriend is working late tonight so it'll just be me and some good books.

Alfoster I'm reading Behind Her Eyes right now😍! 8y
19 likes1 comment
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BookishMarginalia
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The Los Angeles Review of Books has just published an interesting interview with the cartoonist Riad Sattouf: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/future-interview-riad-sattouf-author-arab-fu... I especially enjoyed the parts about his creative process. Enjoy! #diversebooks

charl08 Great books. 8y
104 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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Debiw781
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Pickpick

Very interesting memoir and my February read for the #nonfictionchallenge17 . The author does a great job at showing the bleakness and utter desolation of some of the areas depicted.

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RealLifeReading
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Whee! I picked up some #comics holds from the library and now finally have a decent enough pile for one or two weeks of #comicsfebruary

queerbookreader The new Captain Marvel series is great 😊 I loved the first trade 8y
147 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
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Pickpick

Interesting read, not my favorite graphic novel, but still a good one.

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Praqriti
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Anyone enjoyed this as much as me ? Loving the author's style and the new things I'm learning !

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RealLifeReading
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Making a small reading list for the #24in48readathon! I also am trying to finish the audiobook of Lab Girl before it expires! Are you taking part this weekend?

Bookzombie I am! 🤓 8y
josie281 I am! 8y
missevievelyn I can't :( getting kind of jealous seeing everyone's tbr stacks haha! 8y
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CocoReads I am! Hoping I can do a whole 24 since there are other obligations too. But I've already informed my hub that with the exception of the March tomorrow and church on Sunday, I'm reading. And--we're getting pizza tomorrow. 8y
Libby1 Wish I could! It would be tough with my six year old. Have fun! 8y
Bengali.bookworm Loving your stack! 8y
mjdowens Hubby already knows my plan for the weekend. He even offered to help pick my books. He doesn't read, so this makes me suspicious😂 8y
PurpleyPumpkin Yes and looking forward to it!🙌🏽 8y
ohyeahthatgirl I loved Indra Das's book! 8y
Bookwormjillk Going to give it a try. Will have to include audiobooks. 8y
Smangela Does it start tonight at midnight? lol I can't remember! 8y
GlitteryOtters I definitely am taking part! Will see you out there in the reading trenches! 👊 8y
RealLifeReading @missevievelyn hopefully the next one!! 8y
RealLifeReading @Smangela yes midnight eastern so that's about 9pm for me in CA. But i think you can do it midnight your time if that works better? 8y
RealLifeReading @GlitteryOtters yeah!! 📚📚📚 8y
RealLifeReading @Bookwormjillk I think a variety of genres and media kinda helps! 8y
RealLifeReading @Libby1 you could! I've got a 3 and a 5! Reading to them counts! 8y
RealLifeReading @Bengali.bookworm thanks😘 8y
RealLifeReading @ohyeahthatgirl glad to hear it. Have been looking forward to it! 8y
RealLifeReading @mjdowens that is suspicious.... 😂 8y
Smangela @RealLifeReading I'm eastern too so that works well :) plus I'm up at various hours feeding my newborn lol so I may as well get some time in then ☺ thank you! 8y
RealLifeReading @Smangela oh you have a newborn! That's awesome and so so tough!! Great that you're doing all this reading!! 8y
154 likes1 stack add26 comments
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Victoria_C
Pickpick

Just finished this. Pretty good but not as much as Persepolis.

4 likes1 stack add
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Keyoung
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Bakin' cookies. Readin' comics.

6 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Gillyreads
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5 likes2 stack adds
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rach_simone
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#PhotoADayNov16 I'm colorblind, so I wasn't sure if this was in the category of #OrangeCovers or #RedCovers. I love this series and can't wait to read more!

16 likes1 stack add
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Zoe_reads_books
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#nonfictionnovember TBR I do love a graphic memoir

Eyelit I just got Arab of the Future from the library yesterday! Looking forward to it (and have made a note to reserve volume 2) 🙂 8y
Lacythebookworm I've been wanting to read Shenzhen! 😊 8y
25 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Soscha
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Pickpick

Memories of a childhood you'll be damn thankful wasn't yours.

6 likes1 stack add
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mhippo
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Pickpick

It's amazing to me how the bewilderment and morbid curiosity of early childhood are represented in the storytelling here. A darkly funny, somewhat confounding, fascinating book.

11 likes3 stack adds
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mhippo
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"'Crows are cunning. They watch you from the corners of their eyes, and when you leave, they steal your things!'
(We were being followed by the boy who pooped in the street.)"

Lindy I keep remembering the part just before this where his mother is disgusted by all the dog shit in the street and his dad is indignant because there are no dogs. 9y
mhippo Hah, yes! The whole scene seems to capture the ominous and bizarrely funny tone of the book. 9y
6 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Giovannacb
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Just bought it! According to what I've read this might be the next Persepolis !!! #pinnotincluded

1 like1 stack add
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skrishna
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Mehso-so

Mixed feelings on this one. I LOVED the art, but I wish there had been less satire and more social commentary. An interesting read regardless.

5 likes1 stack add