The True True Story Of Raja The Gullible (and His Mother)

By (author) Alameddine Rabih
Short description/annotation:
From the inimitable Rabih Alameddine - winner of the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award - comes a tragicomic saga set in Lebanon, a modern story of family, memory, and the unbreakable (and insane) attachment of a son and his mother.
Description:

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION!

''Relentlessly funny'' The New Yorker

''Darkly comic . . . I loved it'' The Guardian

From the inimitable Rabih Alameddine - winner of the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award - comes a tragicomic saga set in Lebanon, a modern story of family, memory, and the unbreakable (and insane) attachment of a son and his mother.

In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and ''the neighborhood homosexual,'' Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son''s privacy as a personal affront. She craves nothing more than to know the ins and outs of Raja''s work life and love life, boundaries be damned.

When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn''t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja itching for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to leave behind.

Wickedly funny, heartbreaking, and told in Raja''s irresistible voice, The True, True Story of Raja the Gullible dances across six decades to tell the unforgettable story of a singular life and its absurdities - a tale of mistakes, self-discovery, trauma, and maybe even forgiveness. Above all, it''s a wild and sparkling celebration of love.

Review quote:

Through the winding and darkly comic anecdotes of the 63-year-old protagonist Raja we see a broad landscape of Lebanon''s fractured history rooted in the actions and reactions of his hilariously imposing mother. It is really a portrait in two parts: of a man reckoning with trauma attached to his identity and homeland, and of the blind passion of a mother protecting her son.
I loved [it].

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Told in a voice as irresistibly buoyant as it is unapologetically camp, this rule-breaking spin on the trauma plot holds on to its cheer in the face of sobering material. Poignant but never cynical, often dark but never dour, wise without being showy and always eager to crack a joke, this is a novel that insists that the pain of the past need overwhelm neither present nor narrative, identity nor personality. With Sartre as his guide, and a drag fabulousness all his own, Raja shows us how.
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This finely textured tragicomedy takes us on a whirlwind tour of Lebanon''s recent past . . . A tale buoyed by consistently surprising tonal shifts and the infectious brio of its companionable voice.
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Alameddine''s writing is sublime . . . He manages to oscillate between wit, emotional depth, and pointed description . . . He makes writing look easy, though only a master craftsman could produce this book . . . [It] feels deeply human.
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Alameddine conjures the caustic humor and poignant yearnings of a gay Lebanese man in his 60s . . . Alameddine''s domestic comedy masks deeper themes of political ferment, one queer man''s quest to forge a more authentic life.
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Sensitively written, this one''s a beauty.
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Raja'