Reviews with content warning for Racism - I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir

After I finished Malaka Gharib's sophomore graphic novel "It Won't Always Be Like This" (which is about her summers - and later on, her very short one week visits in winter - in Egypt with her dad, her stepmom Hala, and her siblings), I wanted to know more about what it was like for her during the times she wasn't in Egypt, when she was in the United States with her mom and sister.

Luckily, I found out that she wrote this book 3 years before that one, and immediately placed a hold on it so I could start reading it with "It Won't Be Like This" still fresh in my brain.

I feel like a lot of the issues I had with her art style in her sophomore book really were not present in this book? In this one, she seemed to have a good grip on what direction the charcters' eyebrows should be facing at any given time and how big or small their hands should be (which were my two problems with the art in the other book).

It took me until I was already a good hundred+ pages into it to realize that the entire book was in a red, white, and blue color wheel. That was a very clever choice she made to hone in on the concept of "the American dream" (whatever that means to any given person).

I enjoyed reading about Gharib's life - from her early years in a school system where lots of children of immigrant parents were students, to going to college and ultimately the workforce and realizing how white the rest of the country really is. And her battle to figure out who she is and where she fits in her very mixed heritage: Egyptian, Filipino, American.

Even though she grew up going to a school with a wide variety of children of immigrants, she still had a hard time figuring out where she fit in as someone who liked a lot of things her classmates dubbed too white (like punk music) and not being the child of one immigrant from one country, but two immigrants from two different countries (even though her parents divorced when she was still a toddler).

I am very glad I decided to read more from Gharib despite my initial criticisms about her art in her sophomore graphic novel. I think her ability to tell a story both through text and through art is great and I will keep an ear out for any future graphic novels she may create next.

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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Malaka’s graphic memoir is a treat to read. I love the format, and the creative use of cute-out activity pages. She discusses her Egyptian-Filipino family, her parents’ experiences, and her experience growing up the American daughter of immigrants from two different parts of the world. She also discusses micro aggressions, and micro aggressions she herself has committed.

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