L'Arabe du futur - volume 1 - (1): Une jeunesse au Moyen-Orient (1978-1984)

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A l'école, Riad se fait voler son sandwich, par Maher, un petit arabe qui le menace avec un morceau de verre effilé... Et la maîtresse n'ose pas intervenir ! En résumé, l'exercice de style est intéressant, même si l'enjeu est évidemment bien plus fort que cela pour Riad Sattouf et sa sensibilité tout comme son authenticité nous emportent, malgré un aspect graphique des plus austère. Sonia Déchamp, « La véritable épopée de l' Arabe du futur», Les Cahiers de la bande dessinée, n o5,‎ octobre-décembre 2018, p.126-129

Not since Persepolis has a comic book seemed so important, or been so acclaimed… It has an authenticity with which no expert or talking head could ever hope to compete. – Observer Mais surprise! Son père est revenu, sans prévenir, en exhibant une fausse montre en diamants ( cadeau d'un membre de la famille Saoudienne?) On utilise le passé simple de narration dans un récit où l'action se passe dans un futur lointain. On utilise le passé composé de narration dans un récit comme L'arabe du futur où l'action est contemporaineJe n'ai pas relu les trois premiers volets de la série avant de découvrir celui-ci. Parce que je suis tombée dessus par hasard au moment de sa parution, que je n'avais donc pas anticipé, et que j'étais vraiment impatiente de m'y plonger. I tore through two volumes of “The Arab of the Future,” by Riad Sattouf — it’s the most enjoyable graphic novel I’ve read in a while. — Zadie Smith in The New York Times

Michel Hazanavicius, Academy Award-winning director of The Artist, proclaims “Seriously funny and penetratingly honest, Riad Sattouf tells the epic story of his eccentric and troubled family. Written with tenderness, grace, and piercing clarity, The Arab of the Future is one of those books that transcend their form to become a literary masterpiece." [8] It is with undisguised impatience and always the same pleasure that we rediscover young Riad, just turned seven years old – Causette Riad’s father, Abdul-Razak, is the star of this book. Riad writes him as a complex but real person. The only educated member of his Syrian family, he comes across as charming, funny, eccentric, bull-headed, tragic, conflicted, and strict. He certainly seems to come down on Riad quite heavily for not being able to read or wanting to learn despite his son being 3 years old at the time! Once the narrative shifts to Syria though you understand why his father is this way - THIS is where he grew up? Woah.

L'auteur raconte son enfance , né d'un père Syrien et d'une mère française d'origine bretonne , avec la particularité qu'il va passer sa petite enfance d'abord en Lybie , puis dans la Syrie d’Hafez al Assad . Son œuvre dessinée est récompensée par de nombreux prix internationaux (Los Angeles Times Graphic Novel Prize, prix de l’excellence au Japan Media Arts Festival, Max und Moritz Prize) et traduite en vingt-six langues.

Abdul-Razak obtains a teaching job in Syria and the family moves to his hometown Teir Maalah, near Homs. Riad encounters severe bullying, in which two cousins accuse him of being Jewish and mercilessly torment him—seemingly because of his blond hair and foreign mother. The cousins' enmity appears to be entangled with a financial dispute between their father and Riad's father. Riad also witnesses strict segregation of genders and sects, media censorship, animal abuse, corruption, poor sanitation, and crippling poverty. Riad befriends Wael and Mohammad, two other cousins who teach him Syrian Arabic; they try to protect him from the two bullies, who are their uncles though around the same age. Riad observes the cult of personality surrounding Hafez al-Assad, who he sees as more sinister than Libya's Gaddafi. Abdul-Razak wants Riad to begin school, but Clémentine fears he is too young—then forbids it entirely after witnessing a group of boys torture and kill a puppy for sport. Monde• Violence faites aux femmes : « Ça fait vingt ans que je n’ai pas vu autant d’Italiens dans la rue »

Familles toxiques

Clémentine has refused to take the family to Saudi Arabia, so instead she and the children are living in Brittany without Abdul-Razak. At the end of the school term, he pays them a surprise visit and takes them on holiday to Syria. The following year, Clémentine and the children again spend the school year in Brittany, then join Abdul-Razak in Syria for the holidays. He has become a more devout muslim, and strongly disapproves of Clémentine's secular ideas. By the end of the volume, tensions between Clémentine and Abdul-Razak lead to their breakup. Abdul-Razak takes the family's savings and their youngest child Fadi to Syria, leaving Clémentine in Brittany with the two older children. Like its predecessor, this installment is deceptively simple in tone and style….Sattouf’s ability to convey his father’s character with just a few lines never ceases to amaze….Under Sattouf’s pen, this state of affairs becomes an ingeniously apt microcosm of the larger world he grew up in. — NPR