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The Good Arabs
Poetry. Fiction. Middle Eastern Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. Swinging from post-explosion Beirut to a Montreal balcony in summer, the verse and prose poems in The Good Arabs ground the reader in place, language, and the body. Peeling and rinsing radishes. Dancing as a pre-teen to Nancy Ajram. Being drenched in stares on the city bus. The collection is an interlocking and rich offering of the speaker's communities, geographical surroundings both expansive and precise, and family both biological and chosen.
The Good Arabs gifts the reader with insight into cycles and repetition in ourselves and our broken nations. This genre-defying collection maps Arab and trans identity through the immensity of experience felt in one body, the sorrow of citizens let down by their countries, and the garbage crisis in Lebanon. Ultimately, it shows how we might love amid dismay, adore the pungent and the ugly, and exist in our multiplicity across spaces.
The Good Arabs gifts the reader with insight into cycles and repetition in ourselves and our broken nations. This genre-defying collection maps Arab and trans identity through the immensity of experience felt in one body, the sorrow of citizens let down by their countries, and the garbage crisis in Lebanon. Ultimately, it shows how we might love amid dismay, adore the pungent and the ugly, and exist in our multiplicity across spaces.
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2021
10 people are currently reading
479 people want to read
About the author
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
5 books19 followersEli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a queer Arab poet living in Tio'tia:ke, unceded Kanien'kehá:ka territory. Their work has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 anthology, GUTS, Carte Blanche, the Shade Journal, The New Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. They were longlisted for the CBC poetry prize in 2019. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter @theonlyelitareq. Their book knot body was published by Metatron Press in September 2020. The Good Arabs is their second poetry collection.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 15, 2022
“my boss says it's s00000 cool that yr arab,
do u speak it?
can u say something?
can u show me?
can u prove it?”
Weird book. But beautiful. And for the first time ever, I saw myself in it in ways I have never experienced before in a book.
do u speak it?
can u say something?
can u show me?
can u prove it?”
Weird book. But beautiful. And for the first time ever, I saw myself in it in ways I have never experienced before in a book.
September 15, 2023
"I release my femininity in Arabic
move with a body unseen in English
like every time Nancy Ajram comes on, I get up
wriggle my hips and summon my preteen body
writhing to the sounds of the oud
my eyes closing as Nancy's voice guides me
into the crowd of my family
pulling my cousins in to dance
raising my arms, twisting my hips
and emulating Nancy belly dancing in her music video
a shake of the hip for every Akhasmak Ah
hand twist Ah
hip shake Ah
hip shake Asibak La' "
// from Nancy Ajram made me gay
I got introduced to Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch by Kiki and Charlott in 2021, when they both read Knot Body. The Good Arabs came out later the same year and I got it as a gift last year. An ode to Arabic which "holds an inherent femininity between Her lips", this collection embodies a trans quotidian that is stunning in the way it enfolds both Arabness and queerness together without discarding one for the other.
The hot pocket of air in a pita, the intoxicating smoke of an arguileh, the thrum of an oud, the garbage crisis of Lebanon — all find a way into these poems. Eli writes: "how the ways we touch each other / can be both", pleasure and pain. Whiteness & the West/Global North are recurring subjects of critique; so are desires to assimilate for respectability and stability. They write, "If looking is first, then love is just waiting for a chance". Here are examples of poetry and art not kept at a remove, divorced from life, but enmeshed within living, loving individuals who attempt to break away from cycles of violence.
move with a body unseen in English
like every time Nancy Ajram comes on, I get up
wriggle my hips and summon my preteen body
writhing to the sounds of the oud
my eyes closing as Nancy's voice guides me
into the crowd of my family
pulling my cousins in to dance
raising my arms, twisting my hips
and emulating Nancy belly dancing in her music video
a shake of the hip for every Akhasmak Ah
hand twist Ah
hip shake Ah
hip shake Asibak La' "
// from Nancy Ajram made me gay
I got introduced to Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch by Kiki and Charlott in 2021, when they both read Knot Body. The Good Arabs came out later the same year and I got it as a gift last year. An ode to Arabic which "holds an inherent femininity between Her lips", this collection embodies a trans quotidian that is stunning in the way it enfolds both Arabness and queerness together without discarding one for the other.
The hot pocket of air in a pita, the intoxicating smoke of an arguileh, the thrum of an oud, the garbage crisis of Lebanon — all find a way into these poems. Eli writes: "how the ways we touch each other / can be both", pleasure and pain. Whiteness & the West/Global North are recurring subjects of critique; so are desires to assimilate for respectability and stability. They write, "If looking is first, then love is just waiting for a chance". Here are examples of poetry and art not kept at a remove, divorced from life, but enmeshed within living, loving individuals who attempt to break away from cycles of violence.
February 28, 2024
The Good Arabs is a stunning collection of poetry. Bechelany-Lynch is a talented poet who has woven together an incredible mixture of thought-provoking analysis and moving emotional impact through beautiful play with form. I was especially fond of the Conversations With Arabs poems and the ones themed around garbage, but they were all honestly wonderful. It offers up a queer disabled Arab perspective that shouldn't be missed. It also has a distinct anti-war and pro-Palestine stance that is obviously (and sadly) more relevant than ever.
The collection also includes a short story "Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack?" I'm going to be totally honest, I generally am not a big fan of when a poetry collection has a surprise short story in it. I love both forms but I like knowing what I'm reading. Even when the story is good. That said, this short story was truly fantastic, taking on a futuristic Lebanon with a magical realism bent to it, exploring war and grief. If you're a short story person, even if you're not a poetry person, this collection is worth picking up for that aspect alone.
Highly recommend this one, for both fans of poetry and short fiction.
The collection also includes a short story "Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack?" I'm going to be totally honest, I generally am not a big fan of when a poetry collection has a surprise short story in it. I love both forms but I like knowing what I'm reading. Even when the story is good. That said, this short story was truly fantastic, taking on a futuristic Lebanon with a magical realism bent to it, exploring war and grief. If you're a short story person, even if you're not a poetry person, this collection is worth picking up for that aspect alone.
Highly recommend this one, for both fans of poetry and short fiction.
July 31, 2023
m’a fait pleurer dans le métro.
February 6, 2024
"An Arab's most powerful skill is guilt."
"Yes, my mother used the guilt trip on me last week."
"How so?"
"She said she was getting old and that I never visited."
"Did it work?"
"I am going to see her next week."
A well-crafted collection, my favorites of which were the poems about garbage and/or food — especially "In the Heart of the Heart of More Garbage" and "the space between you & us." I felt some poems verged on cliche, but cliche approached with the right amount of skill and simplicity by the author — the descriptions of food (though I liked them) and the Conversations come to mind. The longest piece, "Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack?", was an interesting read but to me felt somewhat out of place with the rest of the book, formally speaking — too like a short story, I guess, although especially prosey prose poems aren't normally something I object to in collections like this one.
"Yes, my mother used the guilt trip on me last week."
"How so?"
"She said she was getting old and that I never visited."
"Did it work?"
"I am going to see her next week."
A well-crafted collection, my favorites of which were the poems about garbage and/or food — especially "In the Heart of the Heart of More Garbage" and "the space between you & us." I felt some poems verged on cliche, but cliche approached with the right amount of skill and simplicity by the author — the descriptions of food (though I liked them) and the Conversations come to mind. The longest piece, "Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack?", was an interesting read but to me felt somewhat out of place with the rest of the book, formally speaking — too like a short story, I guess, although especially prosey prose poems aren't normally something I object to in collections like this one.
May 24, 2025
Great read for me. Lot of intersecting identities and topics that I am wholly unfamiliar with. Poetry isn’t my usual read either, so it was super refreshing. 5/5 would recommend.
August 15, 2022
Loooved it!
Appreciated the two Armenian references
Some favorite snippets:
Who Gives Us the Permission
… flesh is flesh is flesh
hanging off the cross. They say he was alive, skin and bones,
tendon, fat, until he wasn’t, and then, well,
he was hanging on my mother’s
living room wall.
…
& if my people
…& you always say western like it’s a bad word & I always say western like it’s a bad word & yet we don’t mean the same thing & you imply gay rights and Black liberation & I imply colonialism & racism & so on and so forth & around & around until an explosion hits & somehow our conversations stop mid sentence …
Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack
…My teta’s wails join the priest’s chants and together they make music. …
yt ppl think i’m yt like
yt people think i’m yt like it’s a compliment
brown ppl think i’m yt as tho it’s a shame
i didn’t turn out less gay
…
They Used to Call Her
…
the women across the street hang their white sheets
from their balconies
against the yellowing building
scream from one balcony to the other
in Hayeren and the wind picks up their voices
across the large expanse of parking lot
landing the sounds gently, if not firmly
onto my balcony
as the musalsal blares in the background
…
Appreciated the two Armenian references
Some favorite snippets:
Who Gives Us the Permission
… flesh is flesh is flesh
hanging off the cross. They say he was alive, skin and bones,
tendon, fat, until he wasn’t, and then, well,
he was hanging on my mother’s
living room wall.
…
& if my people
…& you always say western like it’s a bad word & I always say western like it’s a bad word & yet we don’t mean the same thing & you imply gay rights and Black liberation & I imply colonialism & racism & so on and so forth & around & around until an explosion hits & somehow our conversations stop mid sentence …
Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack
…My teta’s wails join the priest’s chants and together they make music. …
yt ppl think i’m yt like
yt people think i’m yt like it’s a compliment
brown ppl think i’m yt as tho it’s a shame
i didn’t turn out less gay
…
They Used to Call Her
…
the women across the street hang their white sheets
from their balconies
against the yellowing building
scream from one balcony to the other
in Hayeren and the wind picks up their voices
across the large expanse of parking lot
landing the sounds gently, if not firmly
onto my balcony
as the musalsal blares in the background
…
January 17, 2022
THE GOOD ARABS by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch: “The energy it takes to fight across a table about the importance of human life is disastrous & yet we must do it & yet we must try”
- From: & if my people
There’s being Arab & there’s being queer & then there is the intersection of the two where this collection fits beautifully. Travelling from post-explosion Beirut to Montreal in the summer, The Good Arabs is an exploration of identity: first at the personal level, what it means to be queer and trans and to feel at home in your body, and also at the macro level, what makes you arab & what is the line between being a tourist or being at home in your family’s country.
I’m not sure what makes a good poetry collection, other than when I get the tingling « this sentence makes me feel things » feeling, over and over. There are deeply intimate details to me in those poems, I was surprised to find them there, but they scratched that need of being seen so nicely, of course I enjoyed it. Objectively, however, there is also a lot to love. Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch has beautiful prose and shows us they also master form - there is a vilannelle in there, which is a form difficult to get right! Overall, I highly recommend you read this, there is a lot to discover.
“My Khalo is dead and for today, I hold space only for this singular grief. Tomorrow I will grieve my country.”
- from: Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack
- From: & if my people
There’s being Arab & there’s being queer & then there is the intersection of the two where this collection fits beautifully. Travelling from post-explosion Beirut to Montreal in the summer, The Good Arabs is an exploration of identity: first at the personal level, what it means to be queer and trans and to feel at home in your body, and also at the macro level, what makes you arab & what is the line between being a tourist or being at home in your family’s country.
I’m not sure what makes a good poetry collection, other than when I get the tingling « this sentence makes me feel things » feeling, over and over. There are deeply intimate details to me in those poems, I was surprised to find them there, but they scratched that need of being seen so nicely, of course I enjoyed it. Objectively, however, there is also a lot to love. Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch has beautiful prose and shows us they also master form - there is a vilannelle in there, which is a form difficult to get right! Overall, I highly recommend you read this, there is a lot to discover.
“My Khalo is dead and for today, I hold space only for this singular grief. Tomorrow I will grieve my country.”
- from: Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack
December 31, 2024
i am usually very picky when reading about the immigrant’s experience because i detach quickly, i see the telling as a performance to cater to a western audience, i see it from the prism of wanting to be understood and somehow envied by the world they immigrated to, i also hate when western queer culture is plainly overlayed and stacked on top of middle eastern and arab realities when it is so far removed from queer people who actually lived there, i liked some poems especially the long prose one and the bits whenever montréal was mentioned
November 20, 2023
This book wasn't my cup of tea, but even the things it did that felt off, including telling rather than showing and its own particular form of poetry (or not-poetry) felt right.
Any collection is going to have varying quality, but the garbage motif felt strong, as well as the short story, some of the focus on family, and especially "Conversations with Arabs" stood out as noteworthy and poignant. I'll definitely look at the author's other works!
Any collection is going to have varying quality, but the garbage motif felt strong, as well as the short story, some of the focus on family, and especially "Conversations with Arabs" stood out as noteworthy and poignant. I'll definitely look at the author's other works!
October 13, 2025
Didn't finish it but had to bring it back to the library. I struggled with the many poems about the garbage problems. I wish we had more poems about being queer & the struggles it might be in Muslim communities. But maybe it's my bias thinking it would be like that.
Also I struggled with the way poems were written. But I'm in no way a connoisseur of poetry, especially in English.
I might try again some day, because I loved the concept.
Also I struggled with the way poems were written. But I'm in no way a connoisseur of poetry, especially in English.
I might try again some day, because I loved the concept.
August 9, 2023
what i particularly like about this book is that there is no attempt to sugar-coat life as trans & Arab. both these worlds intersect in this collection. i liked the conversations with an arab that were spread throughout the book. they were humorous and thoughtful. there's a candour here that was really appealing.
September 16, 2022
A lovely, thought-provoking and occasionally funny (in a “humor makes the pain go down easier” way) collection. I especially liked “don’t let me be lonely” and “Conversation #8” (about anti-Blackness).
May 28, 2023
[lu en anglais]
Lu d’une traite, c’était si bien écrit. Intéressant d’avoir la vision de l’auteur.rice, personne d’origine arabe non-binaire.
Je suis généralement peu fan de poésie, mais Elie a réussit à me transporter dans son univers avec la douceur de ses mots.
Lu d’une traite, c’était si bien écrit. Intéressant d’avoir la vision de l’auteur.rice, personne d’origine arabe non-binaire.
Je suis généralement peu fan de poésie, mais Elie a réussit à me transporter dans son univers avec la douceur de ses mots.
November 30, 2023
Actual rating: 3.75
I wanted much more from this book and this author. I enjoyed the writing, and the exploration of the author's multiple facets (sexuality, origin, family relationships, grief). I would love to pick up whatever they write next !
I wanted much more from this book and this author. I enjoyed the writing, and the exploration of the author's multiple facets (sexuality, origin, family relationships, grief). I would love to pick up whatever they write next !
April 24, 2024
I usually don’t read poems, but trying something new totally opened a new genre of literature for me too discover!! This book is beautifully written, it was such an interesting read and I learned quite more than I thought I would from it. Thank you, Eli Tareq.
Read
January 13, 2025Saying one thing and meaning another
has not led us anywhere. Speak the truth, they say
but what is the truth
when we’re all holding on
to something different? What is the truth
when the lies we tell ourselves
help us sleep at night?
has not led us anywhere. Speak the truth, they say
but what is the truth
when we’re all holding on
to something different? What is the truth
when the lies we tell ourselves
help us sleep at night?
September 16, 2021
Read my review of this book here: https://booksandbakes.substack.com/p/...
July 22, 2022
Poems about garbage, about what we choose to see and un-see, about transitioning from weird to normal and wow, normal is pretty weird.
December 26, 2022
Ça fait toujours plaisir d'être témoin de textes comme celui-ci!
April 9, 2023
Really liked it. Ironic that I liked the middle section (ie the prose) more than the poetry, but it's like that sometimes. Really enlightening n pretty.
May 21, 2023
"Hope is manufactured when luck fails us".
Read
June 20, 2023I thought this was really good tho could have been edited a tiny bit more. I would like to read this author's other book for sure.
Read
July 7, 2024"Oh no no. I only listen to women."
"How come?"
"The diva is the centre of the Arab world."
"How come?"
"The diva is the centre of the Arab world."
July 15, 2024
This book gave me a hug. It saw and healed a part of me.
December 23, 2025
i learned a lot about garbage
December 28, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
March 11, 2024
This collection spends most of its time in post-explosion Beirut, mired in the ever-present garbage that never gets collected, questioning what it means to be Arab at all, let alone a good one, and dealing with legacies of violence, corruption, and colorism.
There is less here on the author's gender/queer identity than I expected, and more about music, I suspect you will want some sort of streaming service handy when you read this.
My favorites in this collection were the "Conversations with Arabs" beginning each section, and the short story "Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack?"
There is less here on the author's gender/queer identity than I expected, and more about music, I suspect you will want some sort of streaming service handy when you read this.
My favorites in this collection were the "Conversations with Arabs" beginning each section, and the short story "Do You Run When You Hear the Sound of a Loud Crack?"
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews