A review of a review.

This is Ayo talking about Aya. I know it’s confusing.

Caitlin Hu wrote a review of the first Aya graphic novel:

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/required-reading-aya-de-yopougon-feminist-book-review

(avoid the comments as there are major spoilers for the Aya extended series)

This is a pretty terrible way to read books. Aya’s author, Marguerite Abouet wrote this series of books based on her life and observations in Ivory Coast. Caitlin Hu diminishes Abouet’s story by referring to it as “heterosex” and “problematic” with only a vague sense of justification based on a notion that Aya isn’t Hu’s ideal of a central character and that Aya’s friends are okay but tragically heterosexual. The passive-aggressive manner in which Hu attacks “Aya,” by lightly complimenting elements of the book and then taking those compliments back seem to underline the reviewer’s discomfort with stories which aren’t directly about the Caitlin Hu Experience. Hu is condescending and imperialist. She reviews Aya as though she were a better authority on how three girls lives in Ivory Coast ought to be written than the woman who lived that life.

What part of the game is that?

-Ayo2012xoxo.