Plenty of angst and melodrama. ( )

In an "unnamed middle eastern city."
It doesn't matter the sexual orientation of the humans involved, i get grossed out by sex scenes in books. It makes me decrease the stars I rate it, and it only detracts from the work.
Two young men are in love. One of them lives with his grandmother, and has a translation service, having studied English in a college in the U.S. The other is from the upper class and lives with his parents.
The country is going through upheavals:
2016 Paperback Other Press LLC
P.78-9:
"for a long time interpreting felt like the purest form of bridging worlds. if I couldn't say what is truly on my mind then at least I would be able to mold the words of others, illuminating each world for the other and finding the point where both meet. a bridge is a position of power, and whenever possible I try to use such power for good. But when I see that the words I am asked to translate are blatant lies then it is my job to do something. because if the lies come out of my mouth, if they pass through me even if they belong to someone else am I not complicit in them? In those situations, I misinterpret. there's an art to misinterpreting. It needs to be done subtly so that it doesn't cause chaos, but just enough to leave a lingering sense of confusion. Nowadays, when everything is uncertain, it is easier than ever to misinterpret. Lies are everywhere. They hang from our lips, lies built on more lies until we don't know what the truth is anymore. that is the moment when misinterpreting can do good. But words have power. America taught me that."

Guapa, the title of the book, is the name of a bar. In the basement of Guapa, is an after hours gay scene.
P.126:
"many of the best looking men only had eyes for the foreigners, because they were a get out of jail free card. the reality is that the get out of jail free card only materialized for a lucky handful over the years, so much so that I don't understand why those poor men even bother. but you could immediately tell from the type of Foreigner that came in what goods he wanted to purchase. some of them were slight, wearing expensive suits and constantly touching their coiffured hair. the manly men, the taxi drivers, banking on a piece of ass and a foreign passport, would rush over, light The Foreigner's cigarette, and puff out their chests. when a foreigner strutted in with his balls hanging like two footballs, the younger boys would clamor around him, batting their eyelashes, their butts up in the air for the Foreigner to take a sniff and make a selection."
( )

Rasa's life has changed dramatically overnight. Last night, his grandmother caught him in bed with his lover, Taymour. Tonight, Taymour is getting married to a woman. And one of his best friends, Maj, is missing, likely arrested sometime during the night. None of these are things he can be open about. And even if he could, his grandmother isn't speaking to him, and she's the only family he has. Beyond his personal struggles, the political situation in his country is getting worse. As a translator for foreign journalists, he gets called out on a job that puts him face-to-face with one of the leaders of the resistance. And with everything going on in his life, he can't help reflecting more and more on who he is and who he wants to be. He spent time in the United States, a land of "freedom." He came back home, and for a while he had hope for his people. But what does it mean to be free? And who gets to dictate how another person should live? If there will always be a power majority, what hope does the minority have?
Although the premise of this story seems simple, it's a rather deep read. I found myself thinking and reflecting quite often while I was reading. Rasa is an intelligent young man, and he's engaged in the world around him. He knows that some parts of his situation are beyond his control. He also knows that he needs to find a way to live with that if he's going to stop himself from breaking. While he lacks support in some areas of his life, he does have support in others. And maybe it's those others that need his focus.

I don't want to spoil too much, but there is one specific point in the book that I need to comment on. When Rasa is thinking back to his time in the United States, he describes his thoughts on being open about his sexuality. He mentions that he could choose to live openly. He could show up places and say he's proud of who he is. He could pretend to be comfortable in his skin. But that would be a lie. He wasn't comfortable. He was still trying to come to terms with who he is. His other option would be to make it known that he experienced discomfort and shame. But that would lead to people labeling him a victim of religion and society. Neither of those felt right to him, so he chose neither option.

This point got me thinking and reflecting. I sometimes have to remind people that coming out stories are still relevant. It can be easy to dismiss them as outdated as more people are coming out at younger ages. While some parts of society are becoming more accepting and open, that doesn't mean everyone feels comfortable being out. And some people are hesitant to speak up about it because it has nothing to do with religion or society. Coming out to yourself can be a difficult process on its own. And coming to terms with that can be difficult, even without any outside influences. So it's important to remember that there are all kinds of reasons that people struggle. And it's equally important that we tell and share those stories.

I also appreciated that this story focused on a young man from the Middle East. I almost never see LGBT stories that take place in that part of the world. And we need to have stories where people can find themselves. Just as much as we need stories where people can learn about those different from themselves.

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.] ( )

5 stars are not enough. 100 stars. Buried in this book there is an accusation that this story does not belong to me. And yet the story knows, and I'm pretty sure that the author also knows, that in this story he has seen into my soul. And in a world where this story is nowhere to be heard, I am profoundly grateful for Guapa and for Saleem Haddad. Easily the most important book I have read all year. ( )

"I live within this prison of contradictions that fight one another like stray cats in my mind."

Spanning a day in the life of Rasa, bookended by two epic events, we see his life reflected through flashbacks. All at once this story was told with passion, difficulty and humour. It was heart breaking, as the weight of 'eib' (a version of shame) - determinedly clings to everything and everyone. We see how momentous events, of world scale, manifest themselves in the lives of ordinary people. The characters are struggling to define themselves, whilst the city around them is descending into chaotic destruction. Everyone has a vision of the ideal - from an activists plans for a dream city, radiating neighbourhoods out from a network of mosques, to Rasa dream to live together with his lover. This was a fantastic debut novel - it wove into the fabric of the story such important history and issues - in such a way they seamless floated with the story, with no hint of any heavy handedness. ( )

Rasa has been educated in America and is a translator for western journalists in an unnamed Arab country. I got the feeling that the story took place not many years of 9/11.
Taking place over the course of 24-hours, Rasa must confront the man who he really is. The day starts off horrifically when he learns that his beloved grandmother, the woman who raised and loved him, saw him with his lover, Taymour, the night before. He feels guilty and deceitful. Grandma has taken to her room.
Rasa cannot stand to know the dishonor he has brought on his house. Taymour doesn’t seem as in love with Rasa as Rasa is with him. He receives vague texts from Taymour about their relationships, which seem counter to the man Rases loves.
The next day, Rasa learns that his best friend, drag queen Maj, has been arrested. Maj is star at Guapa, an underground gay bar. He roams the city’s slums, looking for Islamist rebels, finds himself at Guapa, and eventually winds up at a wedding. Through it all, the backstory of Rasa’ life are interwoven, giving the narrative an unbalanced feeling.
I get that that’s to help the reader feel what Rasa is feeling, but that unsettling wasn’t consistent. There were times, like Rasa’s life, the book was riveting and times that the story seemed to drag. Upon reflection, debut author Haddad did a remarkable job. However, I didn’t care for this story. The bouts of compelling reading interspersed with lengthy, rather boring text just can’t make me like the story. And I still don’t understand why the book was named after a bar. Maybe I missed it.
I give Guapa 2 out of 5 starts. ( )

At 27 Rasa lives with his grandmother in al-Sharqiyeh, a large city in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. He works as a translator for foreign journalists because he speaks fluent English after going to college in America. The novel Guapa by Saleem Haddad spans 24 hours in Rasa’s life that are an emotional flash point. He has participated in the Arab Spring protests, wants change for his country, but the pressure to get married and live a life of lies explodes when his grandmother catches him in bed with his boyfriend. Suddenly, her knowledge and the events of the day ahead means that everything and nothing matters.

Rasa’s sexuality has been a source of confusion and shame for him since he was a young teenager. Haddad complicates this issue with the fact that both of his parents are gone, his father from cancer, but his mother as only a disappearance from his life. His grandmother’s traditional beliefs and the social structure in his country leave him no room to maneuver so he hopes that the time away will allow his feelings and identity to coalesce. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of 9/11 his college years are spent defending/hiding/apologizing for his nationality. His attempts at dating are abortive and ultimately, he directs his energy outward

I took all my rage and channeled it into activism, into human rights and justice and things that were clear and simple. I was passionately angry about the unjust wars, the brutal occupations, the massacred children, and the exploitation of people for profit and the pursuit of new markets. The angrier I became, the less time I had to think about how lonely I really was. I would never have admitted it to myself at the time, but underneath it all I wanted nothing more than to satisfy an inherent feeling of the unfairness of the world in my own life. p. 245

Through Rasa, Haddad encapsulates the passion of a group of young people who are striving to mesh dreams of freedom with the culture of their homeland. Scenes of police brutality, abject poverty, and the fear of being locked up for unknown infractions are pervasive throughout Guapa. That Haddad then layers in the most intimate aspect of human nature—who we love—and wraps it all in the heavy cloak of eib (the Arabic concept of shame) makes Rasa’s situation even more oppressive. His idealism about the protest movement wanes as he realizes it has become religiously radicalized. Under a fundamentalist government he will have fewer social freedoms than he does now.

Haddad propels the plot of Guapa through its 24 hours with a pace that conveys the building tensions in Rasa’s mind and his inability to keep it all together. Where things wobble is regarding his mother. Her disappearance early in his life seems largely unremarkable for most of the story but then becomes paramount to his feelings of resentment and abandonment towards the novel’s end.
While this dilutes the energies of the many vital elements in Guapa it is still a forceful work that provides worthwhile insight to a world most of us will never experience. ( )

Reading this story was amazing! The struggles faced by the young man were seemingly insurmountable. If only seeing coming out and gay life in a Muslim world were presented that would have been fine. Even escaping his native world and coming to America to attend college was not what it seemed to be. Experiencing the events of 9/11/2001 as a Muslim, a visitor to the U.S., guilty while being innocent was eyeopening. But this is not a sob story. It is simply a persons struggle to come to terms with his own life in a world not unlike our own, one where it is better to be invisible and safe rather than open, honest and truly free. ( )