A review by lbrex
Guapa by Saleem Haddad

5.0

This is a really impressive novel. I can't think of the last book that I've read that's so full of turmoil--romantic, interpersonal, familial, and political. Rasa's struggle, which seems to grow in magnitude as the reader learns more about him, is not finished by the end of this book, but the novel has gotten across the complexity and the sheer thorniness of the many challenges that he faces. Rasa is a man who has had it with the pretense that society requires of us--whether around being an Arab or being a gay man--and becomes increasingly ready to break the rules, to call bulls#$% on the restrictions that he cannot stand. His character is a vulnerable, grumpy, complaining, angry mess, and I loved him for it. For all the issues that this book describes that I haven't had to deal with in my own life, the narrative made me identify with him the more. I wanted to comfort this narrator; he was facing challenges I might be too weak to withstand.

This book's representation of politics was also intriguing. It gets across the cruel outcome of the "Arab Spring" and optimism that it engendered, while also indicating that the political options are so limited in the imagined country of this novel that they come, at times, to resemble the powerlessness of a closeted relationship. Rasa's loves and friendships can't be divorced from the environment in which they are formed, and the bumpy ride that is the last 100 pages of this novel is marked by military violence and civilian deaths.

There are points in the book where I wasn't exactly blown away by the style (sometimes in the interactions between Taymour and Rasa the wording seemed repetitive), but _Guapa_'s overall brute emotional force is something that I won't forget. I think just about everyone should read this, but obviously folks with an interesting in queer literature will be the best served. Please check it out and let me know what you thought...meanwhile, can we have Saleem Haddad come and speak at my school!?!