Abouet, Marguerite 1971–

PERSONAL:

Born 1971, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, West Africa; married; children: one son.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Romainville, France.

CAREER:

Writer. Worked as a legal assistant in Romainville, France.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best First Album award, Angoulême International Comics Festival, 2006, for Aya.

WRITINGS:

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Aya de Yopougon, illustrated by Clemént Oubrerie, Gallimard Jeunesse (Paris, France), 2005, published as Aya, translated by Helge Dascher, Drawn & Quarterly (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) 2007.

Aya 2,[France], 2006.

Also the author of books for young adults.

Author's works have been translated into German, Spanish, and English.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer Marguerite Abouet was born in 1971 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in Western Africa. She grew up during a time of great prosperity and hope for the future in Ivory Coast. At the age of twelve, she and her old brother went to stay with a great-uncle in Paris, where they further pursued their education. Years later, after becoming a novelist for young adults, Abouet was drawn to telling the story of the world she remembered from her youth. The result was the graphic novel Aya de Yopougon, published in North America as Aya, illustrated by Clemént Oubrerie, that recalls Abouet's Ivory Coast childhood in the 1970s, and tells the humorous, engaging stories of her friends and family as they navigate a happy and prosperous time in that country's history.

Interviewer Angela Ajayi, writing on the Wild River Review Web site, found in Abouet a deep longing for retaining and recording her memories of the way the Ivory Coast was in her childhood. She called Aya Abouet's "very powerful visual and literary expression of this longing, this deep need to hold onto childhood memories filled with ‘unbelievable’ stories about neighbors, families, friends—all in an Ivory Coast that had recently gained independence from France and was enjoying a new middle class society." Unlike the frequent images of Africa that have appeared in the media, the reality of the African world depicted in Aya is not a steady stream of poverty, disease, starvation, warfare, and misery. Abouet has said she hopes Aya will help offset negative images of Africa that have been prevalent in movies, newspapers, television news reports, and elsewhere. In an interview with Bookslut Web site contributor John Zuarino, Abouet stated that she is unhappy with the way that the media often portrays Africa and the Ivory Coast. "The African people have enough of these very bad, miserable images of Africa that the media will show," she said to Zuarino. "Even now people will still say to me, ‘I'm not going to Africa because I'm really afraid to see all these miserable people.’ It's almost as easy as saying you don't want to go to the United States because you're afraid to get a bullet in the head." Aya resulted from this frustration. "I got so annoyed at the way in which the media systematically showed the bad side of the African continent," Abouet told Ajayi, "that I wished to show the other side, to tell about daily modern life that also exists in Africa."

Aya is set in Abidjan, a busy and prosperous Ivorian city and Abouet's birthplace. Aya herself is a serious, intelligent, ambitious teenager, intent on pursuing her professional education and becoming a doctor. Her best friends in the neighborhood of Yopougon, Adjoua and Bintou, are less interested in school or advancement than they are in dancing and partying with the many attractive and available young men in the neighborhood, including Moussa, a dim but pleasant sort. Aya's father, a salesman, scoffs at her desire to study medicine, and when he is promoted to a position that requires a great deal of travel, additional pressures are put on Aya and her family. At night, in the neighborhood's market square, empty of business, young men and women meet to pursue romance, while Aya continues to look optimistically forward. Soon, troubles arise when Bintou is grounded after being caught at a disco with her father's best friend, a man twice her age. Adjoua becomes pregnant, and identifies Moussa as the father, who is forced into marrying her. As the story unfolds, Abouet and Oubrerie depict traditional Ivorian dress, evoke the mesh of African and Western culture, describe the backdrop of French pop music, and show how life, whether on the Ivory Coast or elsewhere, runs a similar course as people do their best to survive, thrive, and prosper.

Abouet came to the graphic novel reluctantly, feeling that "girls were not really involved in comics, and comics were not really for girls," she remarked to Zuarino. In a genre dominated by superheroes, Abouet found interest in only one character: Spider-Man, whose struggles with the pressures of daily life and personal relationships resonated with her in a way that a physical clash with a supervillain could not, she told Zuarino. The evolution of graphic novels, she observed, has brought in more talented women writers and has appealed to more female readers through the telling of realistic stories.

A reviewer on FrenchCulture.org called Aya "an unpretentious and gently humorous story of an Africa we rarely see—spirited, hopeful, and resilient," and commented favorably on "Abouet's vibrant writing." School Library Journal critic Jamie Watson noted: "This realistic story immerses readers in the life of an Ivorian teen of the period." Abouet provides "delightfully thorough characterizations that resound with emotional universality as they manifest the particulars of a time and a place" that most Americans rarely encounter, observed Francisca Goldsmith, writing in Booklist. Daily Cross Hatch Web site reviewer Elizabeth Chou stated: "This is no mere indulgence in teenage soap opera. Abouet and Oubrerie have created a unique portrait of daily life in a working class African city in the 1970s." A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: "By turns humorous and touching, the book vividly depicts a specific time and place and addresses themes familiar to anyone who has endured adolescence."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2007, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Aya, p. 40.

Boston Globe, June 9, 2007, Matthew Shaer, "Trapped between Two Worlds in Ivory Coast," review of Aya.

Kliatt, May, 2007, George Galuschak, review of Aya, p. 31.

Montreal Mirror, March 15, 2007, Juliet Waters, "Teens in Abidjan," review of Aya.

Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2007, review of Aya, p. 37; March 13, 2007, Kate Culkin, " Aya Comes to America."

School Library Journal, March, 2007, Jamie Watson, review of Aya, p. 240.

Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2007, Amanda MacGregor, review of Aya, p. 137.

World Literature Today, September 1, 2007, Jessica Walker, review of Aya, p. 59.

ONLINE

American Library Association Web site,http://www.ala.org/ (November 27, 2007).

BlogatNewsarama,http://blog.newsarama.com/ (May 15, 2007), "Creator Q&A: Marguerite Abouet."

Bookslut,http://www.bookslut.com/ (November 27, 2007), John Zuarino, interview with Marguerite Abouet.

ComicBookBin.com,http://www.comicbookbin.com/ (May 10, 2007), Leroy Douresseaux, review of Aya.

Daily Cross Hatch,http://thedailycrosshatch.com/ (March 5, 2007), Elizabeth Chou, review of Aya.

Drawn & Quarterly Web site,http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/ (November 27, 2007), biography of Marguerite Abouet.

FrenchCulture.org,http://www.frenchculture.org/ (November 27, 2007), review of Aya.

Gutter Geek,http://guttergeek.com/ (November 27, 2007), Taylor Nelms and Eva Yonas, review of Aya.

PopMatters,http://www.popmatters.com/ (July 9, 2007), Megan Milks, review of Aya.

Skinny,http://www.skinnymag.co.uk/ (September 12, 2007), Campbell Miller, review of Aya de Yopougon.

Suicide Girls Web site, http://209.237.250.100/boards/Lifestyle/112001/(April 8, 2007), review of Aya.

University of Western Australia Web site,http://www.uwa.edu.au/ (November 27, 2007), biography of Marguerite Abouet.

Venuszine.com,http://venuszine.com/ (November 27, 2007), Lisa Brunton, review of Aya.

Wild River Review,http://www.wildriverreview.com/ (November 27, 2007), Angela Ajayi, "Drawing on the Universal in Africa: An Interview with Marguerite Abouet."