Haddad, in his own words, is a piece of human history. As Rasa observes in the novel, gay Arab men live a codified existence, where homosexuality is seen only in a slight lightness of the wrists, a fearful self-awareness in the eyes – and not in elaborate pride parades or overt flamboyance. Now 33, living in London with his partner and his dog, he grew up burdened with the knowledge that he would not have children or continue the family lineage, in a society where stereotypes about the effeminacy of homosexual men abound. Moments of his past play out as he makes his way around the city on a day that he knows will end with Taymour’s wedding, to a mutual and unsuspecting female friend.Īs a gay Arab man, Haddad is fascinated by shame, but was also once plagued with it: growing up he felt ashamed for not filling the ideal male role. The book begins the morning after this shaming encounter: in the tense aftermath, Rasa, fretting about possible repercussions while dealing with eib, attempts to distract himself at work as a translator for western journalists. Rasa’s grandmother Teta has just discovered him in bed with his boyfriend Taymour, who tries to “play by the rules, one foot in and one foot out”. Guapa, described in the Guardian as “immensely readable … fluent, passionate and emotionally honest”, follows Rasa, a young gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, over a single day in the recent aftermath of a failed political uprising.
0 kommentar(er)
