Were there any images or vistas in particular that convinced you to make this a graphic memoir?
I have a picture of my tiny home—made even tinier—against the most majestic mountains. I referenced the photo multiple times in my book. In some renditions, the mountains are snowcapped, and in others, green, and sometimes the perspective of the house is shifted, but it’s always essentially the same image.
Which layer of your own culture shock was the hardest to overcome?
Surprisingly, being an Iranian American was the easiest to overcome. And while I could hide that I was a vegetarian, there was a big city–small town cultural gap that, in the end, I was not able to bridge.
Did you find yourself assimilating in Idaho in any way that surprised you?
I remember we met up with a friend’s dad who was going to show us around this particular valley. When we arrived, he was standing there, cowboy hat on and a pistol on his hip. If this had been a movie, I would have been screaming at the screen to stop the poor, handsome brown man from following the gun-toting cowboy into an area with no cell phone reception. But there is a certain trust in your neighbors you develop in rural communities. You need that trust to survive in a place like that.•
THIS COUNTRY: SEARCHING FOR HOME IN (VERY) RURAL AMERICA, By Navied Mahdavian
PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS • SEPTEMBER 2023 • 288 PAGES • $25.95 PAPERBACK
The dream of owning land and raising a family in solitude drives cartoonist Navied Mahdavian from an apartment in the Bay Area to a small cabin in the mountains of Idaho in this graphic memoir. As he settles in, he begins to question whether he—vegetarian, Iranian American, new father, artist—belongs in rural America.
Ajay Orona is an associate editor at Alta Journal. He earned a master’s degree from USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism in 2021 and was honored with an Outstanding Specialized Journalism (The Arts) Scholar Award. His writing has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Ampersand, and GeekOut.
