A Review of Malaka Gharib’s It Won’t Always be Like This (Ten Speed Press, 2022)

Posted by: uttararangarajan



Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Uttara Rangarajan  

So, I always teach Malaka Gharib’s first graphic narrative, I Was Their American Dream, so I was super excited to hear that Gharib had another publication come out. I have to admit, when I saw it was another memoir, I was thinking: well, what other material could there be, only because the first covered so much ground! Let me tell you: there’s a ton of other material to work with! The marketing description provides us this key information: “It’s hard enough to figure out boys, beauty, and being cool when you’re young, but even harder when you’re in a country where you don’t understand the language, culture, or social norms. Nine-year-old Malaka Gharib arrives in Egypt for her annual summer vacation abroad and assumes it'll be just like every other vacation she's spent at her dad's place in Cairo. But her father shares news that changes everything: He has remarried. Over the next fifteen years, as she visits her father's growing family summer after summer, Malaka must reevaluate her place in his life. All that on top of maintaining her coolness! Malaka doesn't feel like she fits in when she visits her dad--she sticks out in Egypt and doesn't look anything like her fair-haired half siblings. But she adapts. She learns that Nirvana isn't as cool as Nancy Ajram, that there's nothing better than a Fanta and a melon-mint hookah, and that her new stepmother, Hala, isn't so different from Malaka herself.”

 

So, if you’ve read the first memoir,—and I will provide some spoiler warning here, so look away if you don’t want to find out too much about it—then you already know a little bit of Malaka’s backstory and how she has spent summers in Egypt, but the first graphic memoir only details a handful of the information related to these trips. All we know is that Malaka’s parents get divorced, and she must spend the occasional summer in Egypt. Well, what little we do actually know as readers! The second memoir fills in major gaps. The first memoir doesn’t detail how Malaka’s father had not only gotten remarried but also had another family and that Malaka had half-siblings (or I can’t recall that there was much detail in the first about this familial dynamic). At first, Malaka finds it challenging to figure out where she stands in this family, but over time, she finds a way to feel at home there. Eventually, Malaka’s father, his wife, and children move to Dubai, so there is a geographical and cultural shift in their vacations. Malaka comes to enjoy some aspects of this time, which is relayed in the title, “it won’t always be like this.” Indeed, Malaka’s very perceptive awareness of the transitory nature of the good times becomes evident in the final arc of the graphic memoir. But, perhaps more important than a feel good family bonding story, is the fact that Malaka understands the complexities and pressures related to relationships and knows that there is always more going on than meets the eye. If only I had enough time a semester to teach both graphic memoirs, and now it appears, I’ll have to figure out which one I’ll teach in the future =).

 

Buy the Book Here

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