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A review by maya_b
This Arab Is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers by Elias Jahshan
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This was such an interesting read, and I'm so happy I stumbled upon it. I don't think I could have ever found it on purpose, because I usually don't look for non-fiction books, and even if I did, I don't think a queer anthology written by Arab writers would have ever been on my mind (even though most of my non-fiction books are by queer authors and about queer topics). Which just makes me more happy about finding it, because I really enjoyed it a lot, and I learned a lot, too.
It's a book I could have read in one sitting, because the chapters are short and interesting, and also I thought all of them were well written, but it kind of felt wrong to do that, so it took me a few days to read, because I took a break after every chapter to just sit with it for a while after, and think about it, and I quite liked that process. It worked well for me.
I can't really say anything about the contents of this book, apart from that it was about a world I knew nothing about, and I loved learning about it. I am queer myself, but I had an amazingly easy time with it (I was nervous for about half an hour when I told my parents, apart from that it took me about 20 years to learn that maybe it's strange to think every single person I know is weird for thinking about sex before questioning if maybe I'm the minority, and it also never occurred to me, that people might not be panromantic, so there's that), and I don't think I've ever read anything non-fiction by Arab authors. So I did learn a lot about the experiences of the authors of this anthology, regarding queerness as well as how they grew up. The struggles of queerness were a little more familiar, because I have read books by other queer authors about their experiences, but some of the things did feel very new, and the context was different, and I did just very much appreciate being able to learn more and that so many different stories were shared.
And I don't think I can say anything else about this book. It was very informative, I like learning new things, and it was very easy to get into and understand, especially thanks to the glossary at the end, that I used quite a few times. Great book!
It's a book I could have read in one sitting, because the chapters are short and interesting, and also I thought all of them were well written, but it kind of felt wrong to do that, so it took me a few days to read, because I took a break after every chapter to just sit with it for a while after, and think about it, and I quite liked that process. It worked well for me.
I can't really say anything about the contents of this book, apart from that it was about a world I knew nothing about, and I loved learning about it. I am queer myself, but I had an amazingly easy time with it (I was nervous for about half an hour when I told my parents, apart from that it took me about 20 years to learn that maybe it's strange to think every single person I know is weird for thinking about sex before questioning if maybe I'm the minority, and it also never occurred to me, that people might not be panromantic, so there's that), and I don't think I've ever read anything non-fiction by Arab authors. So I did learn a lot about the experiences of the authors of this anthology, regarding queerness as well as how they grew up. The struggles of queerness were a little more familiar, because I have read books by other queer authors about their experiences, but some of the things did feel very new, and the context was different, and I did just very much appreciate being able to learn more and that so many different stories were shared.
And I don't think I can say anything else about this book. It was very informative, I like learning new things, and it was very easy to get into and understand, especially thanks to the glossary at the end, that I used quite a few times. Great book!