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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Habibi is my third Craig Thompson illustrated novel. I am astounded at the level of emotion that he is able to evoke out of illustrations and few words. There’s something about seeing pain and injustice take place that makes it just that much more powerful than words alone. With that being said I am torn completely in two about this book. On one hand the illustrations were astounding and obviously handled with painstaking devotion, on the other hand the story was frustrating. The characters go through trials that change them inside and out for the rest of their lives but it’s too heavily padded with religious themes to flow well. If you’re familiar with the Quran it may be a more fluid read but for others it takes a lot of effort to make it through.
Pros: Beautiful art
Cons: Confusing settings, heavy religious influences
Triggers: Rape, human trafficking, self-harm, eating disorders, child neglect
Rating: 2/5
Pros: Beautiful art
Cons: Confusing settings, heavy religious influences
Triggers: Rape, human trafficking, self-harm, eating disorders, child neglect
Rating: 2/5
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Tragic. Just tragic, that this is such a gorgeously illustrated book.
Crap story so far, for all the reasons that everybody else mentions: jumpy plot line, orientalism, racism. It is so murky.
I'm also a little uneasy with the book looking like a quran. It has the same heft, size, and design. The illustrations inside don't bother me at all, whether they depict sexuality or quran. I can accept that those are part of the story, but having such a story on my bedside stand, inside a book that looks like a quran, I find disturbing. Go figure!
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Finished it last night. What a disturbing and bleak story. I suppose the ending redeems what it can, but sheesh, if that didn't happen... Ughh. Pointless.
What I liked:
The artwork, just brilliant. Some of the religion stories illustrated. I really, really wish to have a book like this with just sacred stories, and no numerology. In Islamic kids books, the illustrations for such stories are usually awful, and very dull in that they are trying to keep it halal. Not very enticing. I loved the story of al khidr, his face surprisingly hidden in the hood of his cloak. His beard curled out, depicted as vines and leaves. Loved it. All those stories are just perfect for graphic novels.
I loved the relationship between Dodola and Zam.
What I disliked:
Oh God, so much degrading sex, gross hairy men, gratuitous nudity... I can handle a lot of it, but since all of it was degrading--whether rape, prostitution, sex with slaves in captivity (harem, no-choice kind of sex). You know, after awhile it is just too much and too depressing.
Like I mentioned, the story is very bleak. I got sick of greed. I know this is a big part of the message, but, ugh. It was really, really depressing. Greed, poverty, filth, people gone feral in order survive...Ahhhhhh! Guess I am not used to books that don't offer a respite from such things with passages of hope.
I tended to skim over the parts about the mystical numbers and letters, it is just not my thing. Perhaps I was missing something important to the plot, but...meh!
I'm not sure this is a complete dislike, but I was a little discombobulated reading the sacred religious stories in the midst of such a book; and since I was so happy to see graphic versions of stories I know, disturbed by the notion that I kept second guessing the author's ability to give an authentic version. Guess I am used to homogenized Islamic tales of Isra and Miraj, and usually one can read them without wondering what the sources were. So I am not saying he did anything wrong, and I think he did a really good job on the sacred stories, just that as a Muslim, it was not easy to just read and take what he wrote, and that threw off the flow and validity of what was being told (slightly). I'm sure other people can right through it and take it as story, which is good. I really like to be able to read a book at least once through without having to doubt or worry--read it as the story is intended to flow. Yadda yadda...
Crap story so far, for all the reasons that everybody else mentions: jumpy plot line, orientalism, racism. It is so murky.
I'm also a little uneasy with the book looking like a quran. It has the same heft, size, and design. The illustrations inside don't bother me at all, whether they depict sexuality or quran. I can accept that those are part of the story, but having such a story on my bedside stand, inside a book that looks like a quran, I find disturbing. Go figure!
------------
Finished it last night. What a disturbing and bleak story. I suppose the ending redeems what it can, but sheesh, if that didn't happen... Ughh. Pointless.
What I liked:
The artwork, just brilliant. Some of the religion stories illustrated. I really, really wish to have a book like this with just sacred stories, and no numerology. In Islamic kids books, the illustrations for such stories are usually awful, and very dull in that they are trying to keep it halal. Not very enticing. I loved the story of al khidr, his face surprisingly hidden in the hood of his cloak. His beard curled out, depicted as vines and leaves. Loved it. All those stories are just perfect for graphic novels.
I loved the relationship between Dodola and Zam.
What I disliked:
Oh God, so much degrading sex, gross hairy men, gratuitous nudity... I can handle a lot of it, but since all of it was degrading--whether rape, prostitution, sex with slaves in captivity (harem, no-choice kind of sex). You know, after awhile it is just too much and too depressing.
Like I mentioned, the story is very bleak. I got sick of greed. I know this is a big part of the message, but, ugh. It was really, really depressing. Greed, poverty, filth, people gone feral in order survive...Ahhhhhh! Guess I am not used to books that don't offer a respite from such things with passages of hope.
I tended to skim over the parts about the mystical numbers and letters, it is just not my thing. Perhaps I was missing something important to the plot, but...meh!
I'm not sure this is a complete dislike, but I was a little discombobulated reading the sacred religious stories in the midst of such a book; and since I was so happy to see graphic versions of stories I know, disturbed by the notion that I kept second guessing the author's ability to give an authentic version. Guess I am used to homogenized Islamic tales of Isra and Miraj, and usually one can read them without wondering what the sources were. So I am not saying he did anything wrong, and I think he did a really good job on the sacred stories, just that as a Muslim, it was not easy to just read and take what he wrote, and that threw off the flow and validity of what was being told (slightly). I'm sure other people can right through it and take it as story, which is good. I really like to be able to read a book at least once through without having to doubt or worry--read it as the story is intended to flow. Yadda yadda...
Remarkable, challenging, and complex, but then I would expect nothing less from Craig Thompson. I didn't love it as much as I did [b:Blankets|25179|Blankets|Craig Thompson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167595421s/25179.jpg|781193], but then the two are completely different works. Blankets is intensely personal, while Habibi manages to be both pointed and timeless, simultaneously telling the story of two people and that of all of Islam. Thompson's use of religious art as a mechanism of storytelling links this book to a very long history of visual narrative. I found myself wishing I knew more about the mysticism of the Koran - and that I could attempt to understand the layers of meaning encoded in the art.
Gosh, I want to give this book 5 stars but it just had too much sexual violence. The idealized bodies, sexualized children, and rape were just too much for me. Big CW for anyone thinking about reading it. Also, racist tropes.
Read more here: https://medium.com/@ndamluji/the-spectre-of-orientalism-in-craig-thompsons-habibi-dde9d499f403
What I did love? - the sweeping story, the myths (1001 nights vibe), the illustrations & calligraphy!! the side by side of Bible/Quran stories, and the ending. If this one doesn’t sound like a good fit for you, try his other book Blankets.
Read more here: https://medium.com/@ndamluji/the-spectre-of-orientalism-in-craig-thompsons-habibi-dde9d499f403
What I did love? - the sweeping story, the myths (1001 nights vibe), the illustrations & calligraphy!! the side by side of Bible/Quran stories, and the ending. If this one doesn’t sound like a good fit for you, try his other book Blankets.
Vi este libro en la biblioteca, en el último balde y me llamó mucho la atención su portada. Parecía un libro especial, de esas pocas veces en las que coges un libro sobre el que nunca has oído hablar y presientes que será tu secreto, tu encuentro especial, un libro que solo le recomendarías a tus amigos más cercanos. Me leí el libro en una noche, excepto las últimas diez páginas que leí al día siguiente. Necesito hacer una metáfora para explicar mis pensamientos. Este libro es una serpiente. Es llamativo, te hace acercarte con curiosidad, pero realmente está lleno de veneno. No está de moda hacer esto, pero creo que las editoriales deberían añadir avisos o los llamados ``trigger warnings´´ en alguna parte. Si no quieren hacerlo muy llamativo, no digo en la portada, pero en alguna última página, después del índice, después de los agradecimientos... Porque este libro está lleno de dolor. Los personajes pasan por un continuo sufrimiento.
No puedo decir que hubiera preferido no haber encontrado este libro. Los dibujos son preciosos la mayoría del tiempo (excepto cuando el autor se regodea en pintar desnudos femeninos), algunos relatos o acertijos que Dodola cuenta al pequeño Zam me gustaron porque me recordaban a los libros de aventuras que leía de pequeña, el los que el personaje debía pasar por el puente después de haber contestado al acertijo del ogro o del dragón.
Pero no es un libro que me haya gustado... ¿cómo decirlo? La palabra creo que sería moralmente. No me ha gustado para nada desde el punto de vista moral. No puede ser que tu personaje femenino pase continuamente de violación en violación. Parecía que el autor se regodeaba en hacer sufrir a su personaje. Yo no he escrito nada de valor todavía, pero sé que alguien que escribe tiene en estima a sus personajes y los pasa por pruebas para que crezcan, pero Dodola nunca encuentra la paz que merece, y si la encuentra, no es paz, es simplemente un pequeño atisbo de relax.
Ha sido una lectura muy conflictiva porque no podía parar de leer, quería saber qué pasaba en la próxima página, pero estaba harta del dolor de los personajes.
No me arrepiento de haberlo leído, pero definitivamente no lo recomendaría.
No puedo decir que hubiera preferido no haber encontrado este libro. Los dibujos son preciosos la mayoría del tiempo (excepto cuando el autor se regodea en pintar desnudos femeninos), algunos relatos o acertijos que Dodola cuenta al pequeño Zam me gustaron porque me recordaban a los libros de aventuras que leía de pequeña, el los que el personaje debía pasar por el puente después de haber contestado al acertijo del ogro o del dragón.
Pero no es un libro que me haya gustado... ¿cómo decirlo? La palabra creo que sería moralmente. No me ha gustado para nada desde el punto de vista moral. No puede ser que tu personaje femenino pase continuamente de violación en violación. Parecía que el autor se regodeaba en hacer sufrir a su personaje. Yo no he escrito nada de valor todavía, pero sé que alguien que escribe tiene en estima a sus personajes y los pasa por pruebas para que crezcan, pero Dodola nunca encuentra la paz que merece, y si la encuentra, no es paz, es simplemente un pequeño atisbo de relax.
Ha sido una lectura muy conflictiva porque no podía parar de leer, quería saber qué pasaba en la próxima página, pero estaba harta del dolor de los personajes.
No me arrepiento de haberlo leído, pero definitivamente no lo recomendaría.
So many thoughts and feelings about this graphic novel.....it is just...wow.
I loved the artwork...the detail put into it is amazing! The story is complex and moving. I really loved how it would jump back and forth through time and also talk about religious stories when the main character Dodola, would tell the other main character of the book, Zam. They are both child slaves though Dodola is about 10 years older than Zam. It covers her raising Zam from age 3 to 12 and how they were forced apart....and then come back together as adults. It is set in the Middle East and involves a lot of stories and situations from that area.
It is an amazing novel and is definitely worth a read.
I loved the artwork...the detail put into it is amazing! The story is complex and moving. I really loved how it would jump back and forth through time and also talk about religious stories when the main character Dodola, would tell the other main character of the book, Zam. They are both child slaves though Dodola is about 10 years older than Zam. It covers her raising Zam from age 3 to 12 and how they were forced apart....and then come back together as adults. It is set in the Middle East and involves a lot of stories and situations from that area.
It is an amazing novel and is definitely worth a read.
I enjoyed this more than Blankets. It had more nuance in my opinion, and the artwork was beautiful. Zam's self-reflection towards the end was particularly striking.
Too much ignorant cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes