QuixotiQ

by Ali Al Saeed

Guy Kelton is a young man with a troubled mind. His shattered dream and the relentless mundane life he's been living, alone and broken away from his family, takes an unexpected toll on him, driving him to violent, reckless extremes. He falls deeper and deeper into a bloody abyss; through extremes that would eventually lead him to the most devastating discovery about his existence.

Going through his mid-twenties, Patrick Roymint, lost and confused, still struggles to come to terms with the loss of his whole family many years ago. But soon as he decides to change all that and try to rebuild the future he's not had, he is dragged into the unseen, disturbing and filthy underworld of the little, diminishing Okay County.

As both men go through a series of mysterious and bizarre events, their lives take dramatic turns that lead them to new revelations about their past, present and future. They somehow find their fates connected by some mystic, unfathomable power.

"QuixotiQ" is a story about hate, love, dark secrets and self-realization, one in which hope and despair are found in the remains of shattered dreams.

Genres: Asia, Fiction, The World, Middle East

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Ali Al Saeed is a writer from Bahrain, born in 1978. For almost seven years, starting in 1998, he was a journalist writing for two of the leading English-speaking newspapers in the country. He then began his writing career, contributing regularly to a number of publications and magazines in the Gulf region. He wrote (and drew) his very first story – a sci-fi comic book – at the age of ten. In 2004, Ali published his debut novel, "QuixotiQ", which was a national best-seller and winner of the Bahrain 2004 Outstanding Book of the Year Award. He also writes short fiction with several of his stories appearing in various e-zines, journals and literary websites – including Gold Dust magazine, RSPublishing, Expose’d, In Posse Review, La Fenetre and Capture Weekly – and recently appeared in the anthologies Goodbye, Darwin (Apodis Publishing) and the New Romance (Arabesques Review). Ali is also a filmmaker, co-producing his first documentary film in 2006. His non-fiction book, "Models of Success: The Journey" was published at the same time. This was followed by "Moments", a collection of short stories, published later in the year. He is currently residing in Bahrain as a full time writer and freelancer.

Reviews

[ElenaSquareEyes · Rating 1 out of 5]

At second time of trying, I managed to read QuixotiQ. I think there’s a few reasons why I struggled with this book even though it’s pretty short at less than 200 pages long. The first is the translation/editing. It’s a self-published novel and I believe the translation was done by the author, or the author wrote it in English but that was their second language. I say that as there were a few instances where it didn’t quite read right to me, a native English speaker. Sentences were phrased awkwardly or adjectives were used which didn’t really fit the context of what was going on.

Then there was the plot itself. It was a bit difficult to figure out what was happening with Guy and Patrick. Guy especially has a lot going on in his head and he has dreams or visions where both he and you as the reader can’t really tell what’s real and what’s not. It makes the story kind of hard to follow and you’re unsure if he’s going mad, just having vivid dreams or if QuixotiQ has some surreal fantasy elements.

The chapters are short and there’s sometimes point of view changes between the chapters and in the chapters, shown by a line break. However, it can sometimes be hard to tell whose point of view your in to begin with as the first three or more paragraphs just use “he” or “she” rather than a character’s name so it can be disorientating. Mandy, Patrick’s girlfriend, and Christina, her friend and former co-worker, also have chapters from their points of view.

All four of the characters are going through tough times and their thoughts and motivations are often jumbled. I supposed it’s a good way at showing how lost these characters are, but it does make things hard to read at times and I didn’t particularly like or connect with any of the characters. Especially as things spiralled out of control for Guy, I just couldn’t comprehend why he was acting that way or see what had tipped him over the edge. The writing style and the story made character motivations unclear to me.

QuixotiQ is the only book I found by a Bahraini author in English. If I wasn’t doing my Read the World Project I would’ve probably DNF’d it as I found it muddled and uninteresting. The bright side was that the chapters were often very short so it was easy to pause and take a break when the strangeness and unclear character motivations got too frustrating.

[Betty-Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing, dark, dramatic and an extremely riveting read.

[Avani Ghosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I fear that calling this book a train wreck would be an insult to train wrecks.

Basically we follow Patrick, who lost his family and is struggling to rebuild his life, and Guy, who is insane. The story takes place in this town called Okay and everyone perceives everything to be fine and stable, except it’s not. Under the surface, there’s a lot of despair, corruption, madness, hatred and secrets.

To my understanding, the author wrote this book in English even though that’s not his native language because he believes English books get more visibility, which is fair and valid. But the writing is really bad as a result because a lot of the sentences were very clunky, he was redundant in ways that weren’t elegant or artful and nothing was particularly well articulated.

The pacing also felt really off and it’s very disorienting (which might be the intention because he’s going for the whole surreal fantasy thing) but it’s just really confusing and unclear what the character motivations are. The plot is also relatively uninteresting 3/10

[Tommi Powell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the only Bahrain work in English I could find for my "Tommi Reads the World" efforts.

Saeed has a very vivid imagination but could not properly tell this story in English, and the overall lack of editing made this a very painful read. Perhaps if it had been written initially in Arabic and translated by a skilled translator, the story would have emerged. Unfortunately, this would have been a DNF had I not been actively seeking a Bahrain novel.

[Julie J · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to read this and ended up skimming it. I needed a book in English by an author from Bahrain and this is the only one I could find. I think it got lost in translation. But it was just too fragmented to really get through.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't finish this book. It is not written or translated well. Too many distracting errors.

[Lora Grigorova · Rating 1 out of 5]

QuixotiQ: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...

I would have forgiven him that, of course, if he had any skill as a storyteller. I understand he has little chance of being translated into English and he wanted to reach as large an audience as possible. However, he is not a skilled writer. He basically tells us everything straight, leaving little for the mind or the imagination. The protagonist did this because of this. He felt sad. He felt happy. He was in love. He wasn’t in love. He was angry. These are not exact quotes, but they might as well be. Ali Al Saeed’s style is as simple as it gets – you don’t need any brain activity to understand what drives the characters’ actions – Saeed is there to tell you. And even if you didn’t understand it the first time (however impossible that seems to me), the author is there to repeat it a second, or a third time.

I would have forgiven him that as well, if the story was any good. After all, not all of us can be masters of the language, but we might have imagination worth being expressed. Saeed doesn’t even have that. I don’t really know what this novel is about, because frankly it is about nothing. We have a couple of depressed guys, whose life is worth almost nothing – and sadly they realize it. Set in the fictional town of Okay (and again, who really names a town Okay, even if it is fictional; if I ever write a book, my fictional town will be named “Sure”) QuixotiQ explores the lives of Guy, Patrick and Christina. Guy is deeply depressed, stuck in a job and in an existence he hates. He holds grudges with his father for not loving him enough as he was growing up and for taking away his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Patrick is more or less in the same situation – only slightly worse. He lost his mother and sister to a tragic accident and later his father who committed suicide out of guilt. Stuck in a boring relationship, he finds himself quitting his job and landing another one as a delivery boy in the company his girlfriend works in. Soon both Patrick and the girlfriend become entangled into the drug world of Okay (seriously, how can a town be called Okay) and are looking for a way out. Christina also quits her job (surprise here) and is just about to be happy with a guy she has been dating on and off for quite a while, when her world also reduces to ashes.

Read more: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...

[Virginie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading the world in books: Bahrain.
The guy has a vivid imagination. It's the least one can say.
The numerous mistakes in the book are very annoying.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bahrain

"The Red Hand"

"Why must we fear those things that are most vulnerable and most precious?"

[Lolilu]

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