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lobelia321Well, that was absolutely lovely. It arrived today, and I read it within an hour. What a delightful little love story, told in graphic format. It is the author's memoir of her path to marriage. The visual style is faux-simple, with sharp contours, blocked colours, no shading or hatching, minimal internal detail, and a signature treatment of hands as fingerless blobs detached from their wrists. The faces are oval and noseless.
The story is told in two registers: at the top of each page, is a third-person, past-tense mini-narrative, in an (uncredit) serif typeface. This mini-narrative often has a serious point and is straight-up recounting of memories. Underneath, most of the page is taken up with a humorous comment on the mini-narrative, in the form of a drawing of figures with speech or thought balloons, containing a non-serif, faux-handwritten typeface.
For example, here is my favourite spread: page 157. The mini-narrative at the top reads: 'We exchanged traditional gifts.' The drawing shows a bearded man (Gehad, Huda's soon-to-be-husband during courtship) and Huda (crying with laughter); both are holding gifts. Gehad's speech balloon: "Whoa! Is this the top from Inception?!" Huda: "I can't believe you made me custom Magic cards!"
So, they're both nerds, and they're delightful. Their story is told in simple form, with Huda's backstory from girlhood to wedding, all riffing off Jane-Austen tropes and quotes, and all in a Muslim setting of arranged marriages. As the author points out, an arranged marriage is not a forced marriage. And as another favourite spread points out (p.24):
The mini-narrative at the top reads "Ok, so. maybe I was being dramatic. After all, there were thousands of people who never dated who were happily married!" The drawings come in two panels. Top panel shows Huda's mother and Huda.
Huda's mother: "Your father and I never dated. We were married for 20 years!"
Huda: "Yeah, and then you got divorced."
Bottom panel:
Huda's mother: "What, you think people who date don't get divorced?"
Huda: "That's actually a pretty good point."
And indeed, Huda inherits two sets of parents: her groom's father and stepmother, and his mother and stepfather.
Format: thick, blindingly white paper; an almost square format; technically a paperback but with a very thick cardboard cover that is silky smooth and has rounded corners (feels a bit like one of those diaries with a lock that you can get at Paperchase, except without the lock) and pink endpapers. It is quite a heavy book. Crisp colours. The art director is Holly Swayne, and the production editor is Elizabeth A. Garcia.
Read for the hasthtag #ramadanreadathon (it is Ramadan right now; note: I'm not Muslim myself). It also happens to fit the Reading Women Challenge of 2018 prompt: a graphic novel or memoir. And also #the52bookclub challenge prompt: Jane Austen inspo.
The story is told in two registers: at the top of each page, is a third-person, past-tense mini-narrative, in an (uncredit) serif typeface. This mini-narrative often has a serious point and is straight-up recounting of memories. Underneath, most of the page is taken up with a humorous comment on the mini-narrative, in the form of a drawing of figures with speech or thought balloons, containing a non-serif, faux-handwritten typeface.
For example, here is my favourite spread: page 157. The mini-narrative at the top reads: 'We exchanged traditional gifts.' The drawing shows a bearded man (Gehad, Huda's soon-to-be-husband during courtship) and Huda (crying with laughter); both are holding gifts. Gehad's speech balloon: "Whoa! Is this the top from Inception?!" Huda: "I can't believe you made me custom Magic cards!"
So, they're both nerds, and they're delightful. Their story is told in simple form, with Huda's backstory from girlhood to wedding, all riffing off Jane-Austen tropes and quotes, and all in a Muslim setting of arranged marriages. As the author points out, an arranged marriage is not a forced marriage. And as another favourite spread points out (p.24):
The mini-narrative at the top reads "Ok, so. maybe I was being dramatic. After all, there were thousands of people who never dated who were happily married!" The drawings come in two panels. Top panel shows Huda's mother and Huda.
Huda's mother: "Your father and I never dated. We were married for 20 years!"
Huda: "Yeah, and then you got divorced."
Bottom panel:
Huda's mother: "What, you think people who date don't get divorced?"
Huda: "That's actually a pretty good point."
And indeed, Huda inherits two sets of parents: her groom's father and stepmother, and his mother and stepfather.
Format: thick, blindingly white paper; an almost square format; technically a paperback but with a very thick cardboard cover that is silky smooth and has rounded corners (feels a bit like one of those diaries with a lock that you can get at Paperchase, except without the lock) and pink endpapers. It is quite a heavy book. Crisp colours. The art director is Holly Swayne, and the production editor is Elizabeth A. Garcia.
Read for the hasthtag #ramadanreadathon (it is Ramadan right now; note: I'm not Muslim myself). It also happens to fit the Reading Women Challenge of 2018 prompt: a graphic novel or memoir. And also #the52bookclub challenge prompt: Jane Austen inspo.