Read: Habibi by Craig Thompson

My first book read of 2020. I decided to start out with a graphic novel because they’re generally easy, fun, and quick reads. So even though this is a monster of a book, I was able to finish in two evenings. I’d read Craig Thompson’s Blankets in college - it was one of the first graphic novels I’d ever read and it was a transformative book for me. After that I read a few other of his novels, and bought this one, but it’s been just sitting on my shelf ever since. I think Habibi is pretty well known for it gorgeous pages. The illustrations are truly beautiful, and the layouts and storylines are uniquely and wonderfully woven. However, where the book falls flat for me is in the content of the stories themselves. It’s a beautiful tale of love in many respects, that’s for sure, but the over-sexualization of characters and excessive use of rape for the purpose of what feels a bit too close to eroticism are problematic for me. I know that many would disagree with me and that a lot of these elements are used in an attempt to depict realities of the lives of these characters. The troubles they face are critical to the storyline, and, considering that Thompson spent six years researching for this book, presumably accurate to what life was like at this place and time, but I felt that the sexual coercion of the book wasn’t used with mindfulness that it deserves. The other aspect of the book that I take a little bit of issue with is that it’s a Orientalist book about Islam and female sex work and transgenderism and poverty by.....a white heterosexual American male. Something about that just, feels wrong? No matter the amount of research, some stories just aren’t ours to tell. And I know that there are many readers out there that will disagree with me about this, but the discomfort of that contrast haunted me throughout the book. What DID I enjoy? Well, I loved learning more about Islam, reading passages of the Quran, and the way Thompson juxtaposes stories from the Quran from the Old Testament of the Bible. As someone raised in Christianity, but no longer a practicing Christian, the idea of religious stories used as just...stories was refreshing. Overall, it was a relatively enjoyable novel to read, and I’m glad that I could finally mark it off of my list. If anything, it reminded me of why I want to read more books from women and people of color, and why I love Blankets so much more!