“She asked me to tell you she would break the world for you.”
“I begin this story with the lie, and like a great whale leading other sea creatures in her wake, it was followed by a whole pod. I wish I can say I had doubts. I didn’t. I jonahed that whale, swam right through and settled in.”
The National Book Association journey continues with finalist Rabih Alameddine’s The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), (Grove Press 2025). A love story set in Lebanon, the novel dances in a nonlinear fashion, covering 1960-2023 in the life of Raja, “the neighborhood homosexual” and his mother – the greatest love of his life. The setting alone is going to pack a punch – we have the Lebanese liquidity crisis, a civil war, the Beirut port explosion, and a pandemic. Throw in a gay professor who lives with his mom (who curses like a sailor) and two cats named Monet and Manet and you know this going to be one hell of a ride down memory lane. Buckle up.
What makes this novel is Ameddine’s writing – a biting humor that spills over the pages through Raja’s unique voice. You will love Raja and his mom, and that humor somehow balances out the tragedies that befall them. Sometimes the humor falls flat and sometimes Raja’s voice does seem to falter – particularly in the civil war section. It could have been intentional due to the fact he’s being held captive in that section, but it seemed more the struggle of a writer trying to do a delicate balancing act between witty little quips and an extremely tragic and sexually exploitive kidnapping.
I’m not going to spoil the major plot here – but the novel revolves around an invitation to a fellowship in Virginia that isn’t quite what it seems – a whale of a lie. That set up creates the bookends to the novel, but the true (true) story , as the title indicates, is one of a mother and son.
It’s a fine book with some exceptional moments, but I wasn’t blown away.
A Girl Named Tommi 