Graphic Fiction and Non-fiction

I wasn't sure what to expect when I went into this week with the headline of “Graphic Fiction and Non-fiction”, but in the reading list I saw the new graphic novel by Craig Thompson, Habibi, so I decided to give it a shot.

I was pretty interested excited when I heard about this book and my interest was pushed further when I saw the amazing design and presentation of the book. I enjoyed Blankets and was pretty intrigued by his take on an arabic love story.  Thompson took a huge leap forward in the art department when he illustrated Habibi, everything is draw with beautifu line quality and variation.  But, even with how awesome it's drawn, at times I did find myself overwhelmed by some of the pages, with not so much room to breathe, basically making me confused on what exactly was occurring.  Thompson obviously did his homework regarding the calligraphy which was prominent through out the whole book, and it looked amazing.

When I read Blankets I was thoroughly invested in the characters, and their very familiar youthful relationship and because of this I was not able to put the book down.  But, Habibi didn't have the same effect for me; I think this is partially because I couldn't relate to their stories as much as I could to Blankets but also because I'm not as knowledgeable about the Qur'an or Arabic culture in general.

Although I was thoroughly impressed by the design and art of the book I decided to look up some reviews of the book and found that a lot of people were bashing on the book for stereotyping. I don't think it's nearly as bad as some of them make it out to be, but I can definitely agree that there is stereotyping.  I don't think it's used in a bad way though, it's more for metaphoric purposes rather than to insult people. I guess some people were complaining that the females were placed entirely for sexual purposes and I don't agree with this.  Every time something sexual occurred in Habibi, it was pretty much a major plot device.

Anyways, I would say Habibi is worth reading if you like Thompson's work or just want to look at something with beautiful illustration, but the story definitely didn't hit home with me like Blankets had.