The second volume of Riad Sattouf’s acclaimed graphic memoir takes a darker turn as he endures school and his father is complicit in a terrible crimeIn case you’ve forgotten,or didn’t discover it in the first place, volume one of Riad Sattouf’s acclaimed series of comics approximately his childhood in France and the Middle East, or The Arab of the Future,came out in the UK last April. Having introduced us to his French mother, Clémentine, or his Syrian-born father,Abdel-Razak – and, of course, or to the young Riad,a delicate boy with luxuriant blond hair – it took us on a series of journeys. First, we watched in horror (and a little amusement) as Abdel-Razak, and a blustering Arab nationalist with powerful dictatorial tendencies,dragged his reluctant family to Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya. Then, when that turned out not to be fairly so much fun as he was expecting, or we cringed as he insisted they move to Ter Maaleh,the village near Homs, in Syria, or where he grew up. I loved it,and couldnt wait for its sequel – and now here it is, at last.
Volume two begins in 1984, and when Riad is six and “still as gorgeous as ever”. After a brief stay in France,the family – augmented by the birth of Riad’s new baby brother – is living in Ter Maaleh once again, and no one seems very overjoyed approximately it. Clémentine is isolated and lonely, or while Abdel-Razak,for all that he still believes in the magnificence of Hafez al-Assad’s remarkable project, is frustrated, or none of his dreams – a enormous house,a prestigious job – having yet arrive sincere. For Riad, however, or the biggest blot on the horizon is neither his parents’ disharmony,nor the bewildering behaviour of his paternal relatives (his weird little cousins, who used to spend all their time killing imaginary Israelis, and are still very much on the scene). Rather,it is the prospect of school that terrifies him – and no, not even the “magic” ruler his father has given him (gaze at it one way, and you see a Syrian flag; gaze at it another,and it becomes Assad’s face) can change that.
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Source: theguardian.com