Title:
Aya: Love in the City
Author: Marguerite Abouet
Artist: Clément Oubrerie
I had my introduction to the
Aya series four years ago (reflection
here).
Aya: Love in the City collects the last three of six bande dessinée, originally published in French. Aya is a young woman struggling along with her friends to figure out her place in late-'70s Ivory Coast. Aya's academic career is jeopardized when she spurns the advances of a lecherous professor. Her own story revolves around plotting her revenge against him. In another thread, a friend tries to make his way as a gay African man in France. We see the conflicts between city Africa and village Africa, between the European concept of Africa and reality.
The book is enjoyable though the switches between one storyline and another are frequent and abrupt. I was grateful for the diagram at the beginning of the book outlining the relationships between all of the characters.
I have now read books 1, 4, 5 and 6. I definitely missed a few details in between so I may well seek out the others, collected with #1 in
Aya: Life in Yop City.
The diagram with the connections between characters definitely sounds important! :) Thank for sharing.
ReplyDelete~Jess
More books should have them.
DeleteI'm sure culturally it was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. African lit is hot right now and there's plenty to explore.
DeleteProbably not something I'll get to, but it sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a must-read a la Persepolis but it's good.
DeleteDoes sound interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt is - a bit of romance, too.
DeleteGreat cover☺
ReplyDeleteThe artwork is most engaging.
DeleteI have a lot of books in my library, but this is a missing genre (and will probably remain that way). But it does sound interesting.
ReplyDeletewww.thepulpitandthepen.com
If you ever do get the graphic novel itch, I have loads of recommendations. Aya is good but it's not on the must-read list.
Deleteinteresting introduction, I should read the series..
ReplyDelete# Live in different cultures always interesting and challenging....
Tanza, I would definitely be interested in your perspective.
Delete