A respectable number of chuckles accompanied my reading the comic-meets-illustrated novella That Can Be Arranged, a quick and light read that I completed in about 45 minutes. Written and illustrated by Huda Fahmy of Yes I’m Hot in This, it covers her journey as a single Muslim Arab-American woman from finding her first potential spouse at age 5 (he was not the one) to meeting her eventual husband at 25.

With her usual wit and occasional enjoyably cheesy humour, Huda keeps the tone of the book light while still exploring the sometimes difficult experiences most people go through to some extent when it comes to romantic relationships. She covers the challenges of unsuccessful engagements and the (mostly) well-intentioned matchmaking of the wider community without bringing out the blanket criticism and rejection that we often see in such discussions around the role of community in marriage. I think one way Huda achieves this is by making this story very personal. Throughout the book, you feel that she is looking primarily at her own internal experiences and what it meant to her and her family rather than foregrounding social commentary.

At times, I did feel like the primary audience may be one unfamiliar with Muslim and/or Arab customs, as there are explanations peppered through the book of concepts that a Muslim would immediately recognise. However, I was still able to find pleasure and laughter in the little familiar details that Huda includes, like her father asking awkward questions he already knows the answer to just to intimidate the potential husband and young Huda’s connection with Jane Austen’s almost-Islamic courting culture.