Guapa

Guapa by Saleem Haddad    368 pages

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.