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Review: Habibi by Craig Thompson.


Book: Habibi

Author: Craig Thompson

Pages: 658

Read On: iPad

How Long It Took Me To Read: 1 day

Plot Summary: Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.
 
At once contemporary and timeless, Habibi gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

General Thoughts: Another book I have wanted for absolute ages and I am glad I finally read it. I have also wanted to read Blankets by the same author and will get to it soon too, hopefully. 

Things I Liked: 

1. The art in this book was AMAZING. It was absolutely stunning. Each page in this book was a work of art. I just wanted to stare at each and every page of this book. It was beautiful. This book is a visual treat. An object of beauty and if you love good art, this is a perfect book for you. 

2. The writing was outstanding too. 

3. The sheer scope and magnitude of this book was amazing. It is bot a personal tale of young girl and it is also a book about mythology, theology and myth and stories. I really appreciate that this book does both these things very well. 

4. The mythology and stories to do with religion were simply wonderful. I love mythology and have always enjoyed stories about Gods, prophets, myths and mythical creatures and this book was right up my alley. 

5. I loved that this book focussed on some really hard topics like slavery, child-marriage and living on the fringes of society. This book was hard-hitting and painted an unflinching picture of a hard life. 

6.  Zam and Dodola made for an interesting read, their relationship, their connection and their journey to and away and back together was riveting. 

7. I really like reading about Zam's life once he has to fend for himself...it was interesting but sometimes hard to read. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. There was just wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much sex in this book. Like realllllly a lot. And honestly it got to me a little bit. I am no prude but this just seemed a little porn-ish. 

2. The book skipped between the life of Dodola and Zam and jumped into a mythological story, these jumps were a little jarring. And after a while, I did get used to it but it still jarred my senses a bit. 

3. Some aspects of the story line were a little bit too outlandish. 

4. And call me crazy but Zam and Dodola being a couple was just a little too fucked up for my taste. ICK! 

Rating: 3/5 

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Comments

krypton02 said…
It was weird that somehow I did not get to the ICK! factor when their relationship took a different turn... (though ordinarily I would have or something like that would turn me off; like once in a Meg Cabot book) But I really enjoyed reading it! Maybe because of the Arabic and all the similarities between Christianity and Islam, I like that kind of stuff. :-) I tried looking for Blankets too, but could not find it. I am being a cheapo and reading easy books to honour my reading challenge! :'-( I hope I can do eeeet. :-)
9 December 2014 at 23:24
Pooja T said…
you know, I was going ick ick ick from the beginning when they were just about getting a little inappropriate...and I couldn't shake off the feeling. I loved the art and I adored the stories about Islam and Christianity and that was seriously amazing but the nudity and non-stop sex got a bit jarring.

I am alll about reading easy books to meet Reading Challenges, I did that in 2012...bought a bunch of Ruskin Bond skinnnnyyy books to meet my goal. For some reason I just breeze through Indian books.

And graphic novels are fantastic, as are short story compilations, children's books..and even picture books.
10 December 2014 at 00:33
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