Saleem Haddad: Guapa
A marvelously moving and rich book. Its narrator is a young gay Arab man who is caught in bed with his lover by his grandmother with whom he lives and what follows is a vivid and powerful picture of the results of that event, a history of his life and character, a picture of what it is like trying to live a life and be true to yourself in such a society as well as thoughtful and sympathetic pictures of the range of people in his life. Guapa is the name of the ever-moving underground night club which is something of an emotional heart for the major characters.
The novel revolves around this traumatic event and the consequences it has for everyone. The location effectively, is not identified; it is a modern Middle Eastern city at the time of the Arab Spring.
Politics is a significant element..the main characters involvement in progressive pro-change movements in his city, his time at university in America ( just after Sept 11th) and his and others dilemma about how and to what extent to be involved in such events and whether it will make any real and long term change. The club is both a relief from such questions yet also a Centre of such ideas as it's very existence is a tiny indication of how for some...young gay people...life could and should change and be better.
It's also very impressive how many other major themes and ideas are skillfully woven into the fabric of the novel. The role of a woman in a marriage ( his free spirited artistic mother who walks out on her stifling marriage and the intense pressure to be traditional from her mother-in-law) is sympathetically shown as is the double/closeted life of his lover...who was about to get married and who was able to leave an apparently comfortable double existence. The climax in a way, is his attendance at his wedding...the book essentially follows one day after the traumatic opening event and ends with him coming to some sort of peace with his situation along with his drag queen bestie Maj ( not the gay fiction cliche this title might suggest...he shows in his arrest and treatment by the security forces how life here can and could be.
Struck me there is some possibility for a sequel/follow on. The ending is somewhat open, obviously as the situation shown is an ongoing one.
The style is vivid and propels the story on well and as indicated, this books strength is its complete and thoughtful picture of a whole society a whole range of different relationships and not, as so often happens in that often self-absorbed genre ' gay fiction' focusing solely on the gay characters and their dilemmas. This shows how everyone is connected and has to be which is why so much in the gay fiction genre ( and I include all other art forms such as films and drama) is essentially trivial. This is a serious book. Jack Cullen you will enjoy as will many others.
