Great African Reads discussion

I haven't got my copy yet but feel free to start discussing here if you do...

i got my copy today! but i have to finish a couple of things before i read it. although i might just read it in the car tomorrow. hrrrmmmm.

Just started it last night. I like it so far, though it took a few pages to train my eyes to read it. Not use to graphic novels. :)

I hope to read this weekend (or maybe before if I meet my deadlines :))

Done, and ready to discuss.

i may read it as early as tomorrow night, depending on certain things. but i'll definitely have read it before the end of the weekend. i read the back cover and i read the first few pages, just to get a sense of it, and i like the artwork and i'm excited to figure out the political nature of it. (the back cover says it is very political).

just curious, Sho...did you think the political aspect of it came through? feel free to begin sharing your thoughts unless you think you'll give away too much.

I finished it too, as well as Aya #3! I meant to read the series, but my library only had #2 in Spanish (which I don't speak!), and doesn't own #4. lol.

I enjoyed the stories and go back and forth between whether to really critically examine them & tease out all the intended & unintended lessons for readers of the book, or to just take them in as a gorgeous visual moment, one person's memory & interpretation of place. Abouet chose a storyline that opened itself up to a lot of (western feminist) moralizing, but then chose not to hit the reader over the head. I appreciated that.

Marieke, yes, in terms of the contrast of the opening optimistic and apparently simple set-up to the story and back story that emerge, I thought it paralleled the idealism of an initial post-colonial period as it gives way to darker forces--power, corruptiuon, exploitation, lack of options.

I just finished. I loved the very last frame. "I was just passing by" hahaha....

I got my copy today and started straight away!! My first graphic novel and seems so much fun!! :D

I've started reading it. I love the artwork - it has so much humor and life in it. The same goes for the story itself I suppose.

I would love to use parts of this in a course some day. For French, it would be great to teach some slang without being too overwhelming. The dialogue sounds realistic in a certain way.

Curious - for those of you with the English - what words do they use when they talk about guys, going out to dance, and such?

mahriana wrote: "I've started reading it. I love the artwork - it has so much humor and life in it. The same goes for the story itself I suppose.

I would love to use parts of this in a course some day. For French..."

i really like the artwork too. i also enjoyed reading the short bio of the artist. apparently he spent a couple of years in jail in New Mexico. oops! not a good idea to work in the U.S. as a foreigner without a permit!

about the language, she wrote a glossary, which is in the back of teh book. do you also have a "Bonus" section in the French edition? it includes a dictionary, instructions on wearing a pagne, how to roll your tassaba (for the ladies), how to make Gnamankoudji (ginger juice), and how to make peanut sauce (oh yeah you betcha i'm gonna try to make it!!)

and about the pagne...she wrote that every pattern has a meaning. what exactly does that mean? is it very literal or people just intuitively understand what patterns are communicating to society? does anyone have some good examples of easy to recognize patterns and their meanings?

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10...

Wow, Sho...I ought to be able to access the full-text at work tomorrow...

Cool--I can't get it from here (but might be able to from work if it's in one of our database agreements).

Finished and really liked it. I liked the light hearted feel of the comic book-esque presentation combined with the serious issues presented - the different outlooks toward women and men in their society, class issues, etc. Loved the back bonus section. I will absolutely pick up the next one.

I'm reading Half of a Yellow Sun now and notice many of the same issues in relation to gender--young women being used as bargaining chips for their father's business, young women not able to do much, ultimately, to evade being groped by men in power.

Marieke wrote: about the language, she wrote a glossary, which is in the back of teh book. do you also have a "Bonus" section in the French edition? it includes a dictionary, instructions on wearing a pagne, how to roll your tassaba (for the ladies), how to make Gnamankoudji (ginger juice), and how to make peanut sauce (oh yeah you betcha i'm gonna try to make it!!)

Yeah, the French version has all of those things as well. I was just curious what words were glossed in the English version (did they keep the words in the original and then gloss them?). Most of the glossed words are the types of things you'd expect young people to have slang for - men, women, going out, certain body parts, etc

I think one of my favorite parts of the book was the class commentary. I really like the part where you see Aya doing her friend's hair in a small room - a very comfortable and intimate context. When you turn the page, you get Moussa's mother having her hair done in a very different setting in her huge house.

They just say "dance" and "go dancing" but they use the word "maquis" and sometimes disco.

at least one joke had to be explained at the bottom of a page with an asterix.

Sho--I also just read Half of a Yellow Sun. There was a lot of class juxtaposition in that story, too.

Mahriana, the hair is a great observation. Also, we see the girls cooking together but at the boss's house the food is just served at the table.

Marieke wrote: "I just finished. I loved the very last frame. "I was just passing by" hahaha...."

Yes, that was the best - and reminded me of the season cliff hangers for the Dallas show (which was referenced when visiting the Big Boss house earlier in the book.
Nice tie-in with the opening season watching tv to end the book like a tv show.

I had to chuckle out loud.

Osho wrote: "http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10..."

thanks but will not be access this site.

Like others I too enjoyed this book. I have recently started reading graphic novels and it is amazing how they convey the same messages/themes that often take books several hundred pages to convey.

The illustrations so matched the words and enhanced by reading experience. I loved the graphic illustrations of the characters and the facial expressions.

I will be reading the other books in the series and then passing along to granddaughter.

Marieke wrote: "They just say "dance" and "go dancing" but they use the word "maquis" and sometimes disco.

at least one joke had to be explained at the bottom of a page with an asterix.

Sho--I also just read Hal..."

I guess a picture is worth a thousand words as there was so much to observe about the day to day life in Yop City at the this time.

Also noticed the difference between the young people who grew up in the urban area as those who grew up in the rural area - eating food with hands v eating with utensils in the restaurants.

Question(s) to the group -

Several have noticed the same gender/class issues in Aya as in Half of A Yellow Sun.

Since I read more works by female authors than male authors - I am use to gender/class/everyday living issues being addresses.

Both the authors of Aya and Half are by authors who have spent time "away" from the country setting of their work - do you think that being away allows authors to be more introspective about the gender/class issues?

Also it seems to that female authors often express their themes such as gender/class/cultural issues through the everyday living details - what they eat, where/how they live, how people go about their day to day lives and male authors seem to me to address these same issues through a broader lenses of the effect on the society as a whole, through governmental polices, politicans, power & how power is transferred to to others, etc - what are your thoughts?

Beverly wrote: Also noticed the difference between the young people who grew up in the urban area as those who grew up in the rural area - eating food with hands v eating with utensils in the restaurants.

Oh, yes, this is a great part. I thought it was so interesting that Aya is able to set Hervé up with Félicité, the two young people who seem to have similar rural backgrounds.

Beverly wrote: "Osho wrote: "http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10..."

thanks but will not be access this site."

Sorry, Beverly, I'm not understanding you.

Okay, I have finished Aya and am ready to comment. Actually I finished several days ago, but I have been reflecting on what I wanted to write. I felt like all the comments here were so positive, and maybe that set me up for disappointment, but I just did not feel that this book did that much for me.

I had never read a graphic novel before and had no idea what to expect- little did I know it would be so much like the comic books we create here in Tanzania to convey health communication messages. I suppose because of that strong similarity, I really expected this to have something more of a message in it, and on the one hand, I guess it did, but it did not go far enough. Maybe I need to read the other books to get the fuller story.

I certainly liked the artwork, but I found the three female characters to look so similar that I often had to flip back to figure out who was who. I found that to be a bit frustrating. But I did like the clever bit at the end of the book.

All in all, I felt surprisingly let down by this book.

For those who may be interested, I have some of our comics available electronically- most are in Kiswahili, but one or two are available in English, if anyone would like, I can send them to you by email (or figure out a way to post them here).

Elizabeth, thanks for your comments! I didn't have enough courage to post the negative aspects of my reaction to the book, so I chose to focus on the positive in my posts. In a lot of ways, I felt much the same way you did, especially with regard to the portrayal of gender and intergenerational roles.

Gosh...i wrote a comment here last night and it got lost in the ether or something!

i just wanted to say that i think it's great when we dont' all agree on or have the same experience reading a book. i'm really glad you guys are pointing out the faults of the book (all books have them, really). i'm sorry you each felt hesitant, but at the same time i know myself that when i feel out of sync with other readers, i get a little nervous about it.

i thought Beverly made some good observations and posed some good questions above, particularly about messages about gender roles. does anyone have thoughts on that--do authors who have lived abroad see their societies differently? is there a difference between the way men and women write about these things?

I wonder how Ivorians would react to Aya...in some ways i suspect Abouet wrote it for French people, if not all westerners.

I think the three girls together form the message...i mean, i'm pretty sure Abouet wants us to see Aya as the one who should be emulated, yet Abouet doesn't set up a straightforward dichotomy...just three friends who are making different choices...and here are the rewards and consequences. i mean, i hope we see some rewards for Aya in the next books! i guess i shouldn't assume too much!

One of the great things about this group is that recommendations or selections somehow stick in one's mind. Definitely the case for me, as I discovered recently that my workplace library had a copy of Aya and others in the set - but in French and rather more specifically rather Ivoirian French at that! Eeek... so I struggled a bit, but generally got the gist of the story. And really, really liked it, and the illustrations.