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Malaka Gharib

Författare till I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir

11 verk 289 medlemmar 22 recensioner

Verk av Malaka Gharib

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Födelsedag
1986
Kön
female

Medlemmar

Recensioner

Super accessible, funny, graphic novel about growing up American-Egyptian-Filipino. I love how down to earth and (painfully) honest it is. Vibrant illustrations, quick read.
 
Flaggad
jennybeast | 13 andra recensioner | Feb 7, 2024 |
I picked up this graphic novel after reading Malaka Gharib's newer memoir, It Won't Always Be Like This, which focused more on her summers in Egypt with the Egyptian side of her family.

I enjoyed this earlier graphic novel as well, as it gave more of the author's background, starting with the lives of both her immigrant parents, from their immigration to the US, their marriage, her birth, her life in California after their divorce, college in NY, first job and marriage. We get to see her growing up mainly surrounded by her big Filipino family, her summers in Egypt with her father's side and as a Filipino-Egyptian American and the comparing/contrasting her various cultures. Her marriage to a Caucasian man from the South, and how that new culture contrast is brought into the mix is also depicted.

I especially had a good laugh as how Caucasian people are drawn not with "pink" toned skin, but with a complete absence of color, truly "white".
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
deslivres5 | 13 andra recensioner | Jan 31, 2023 |
It Won’t Always Be Like This is a graphic novel about an Egyptian-Filipino-American girl who writes about her summers with her father and his new family in Egypt. This graphic novel explores the complicated dynamic that is family and cultural difference during Malaka Gharib’s preteens through early adulthood.

I enjoyed that Gharib didn’t shy away from how she was as a teenager (mood, bratty, and selfish). She was quite honest looking back as to both how she felt and her reasoning behind it at that time. I also like how the ending wasn’t necessarily a happy one - things weren’t resolved and everything was okay, but Gharib wished everyone, especially Hala, the best.

Overall, a great and beautiful graphic novel memoir that dives into being a kid with not only divorced parents, but divorced parents who live on opposite sides of the world from each other and what it’s like living between them.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
oldandnewbooksmell | 7 andra recensioner | Dec 8, 2022 |
I enjoyed this coming of age story. It is a realistic portrayal of a child who grows up with divorced parents who are from different cultures. Malaka's mother is Filipino while her father is Egyptian. Her parents met while in the U. S. but when they divorced, Malaka's father moved back to Egypt. Malaka dresses like an American youth, which shocks her father's Egyptian neighbors. The Islamic faith is a big part of the story as Malaka's father and her new stepmother are Muslim. The story solely takes place in Egypt over several summers which Malaka always spent with her father. As she got older, Malaka's dress became an issue. She was expected by both her father and the Egyptians to dress modestly as she she came of age. On one occasion Malaka was groped by a group of boys because they thought she would be easy, given her dress style.

Gharib is a natural storyteller. It seemed like she was speaking to me face to face about her summers in Egypt. She knew what angles of her story would keep me reading and exactly how to write it out. Because the storyline actually happened to her, the writing flowed naturally.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Violette62 | 7 andra recensioner | Dec 4, 2022 |

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Statistik

Verk
11
Medlemmar
289
Popularitet
#80,898
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
22
ISBN
7

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