The Arab of the Future 3

Riad Sattouf has recently published part 3 of his series about growing up in the Middle East. It only covers 2 years of his life; from 1985 through 1987. Riad has a French Christian mother, Clementine, and a Lebanese father who teaches at a Syrian university. Together with his younger brother Yahya they live in the countryside village of Ter Maaleh where there are many deprivations of life. The power frequently goes out, there are no traditional grocery stores and many foods are scarce.

Riad is now 7 and continues to struggle with fitting in. Because he is blonde like his mother Riad is frequently accused of being Jewish. He and his best friend Saleem are star pupils and are never in trouble with the teacher. However, they incur the wrath of other students who regularly get caned by the teacher. They still manage to have a good time in an increasingly cruel society run by Bashir Al-Asad. His parents frequently fight as Clementine demands they either move to a large city in Syria or back to France where she is from. His father struggles with his lack of religious piety, something that his mother demands from him, including a demand that Riad be circumcised like all Muslim boys. Success always seems right around the corner for this family. With interesting relatives that make great secondary characters Sattouf has another hit with this graphic memoir.

As with the earlier two novels, the artwork consists of line drawings with a color scheme based on where the family is located during a scene. The drawings are colored pink when they are in Syria and blue when they are in France. Since most of the story takes place in Syria, this book is primarily colored in pink.

I have looked forward to getting this book since part 2 was published.  It was a long wait but well worth it. Now I have to wait for part 4!