Caid > Recent Status Updates

Okay, maybe it’s just the transition between Chapter II and the first third of Chapter IV that is the problem. Once Raja begins his time in the bunker, the magic of the novel returns, if not the self-conscious narration.

Chapters III and IV—particularly IV, “1975: The Civil War”—read like drafts, especially in comparison to the finely wrought first chapters. Alameddine abandons the wandering but wonderful self-conscious narration of the first third of the book to hurry through Raja’s necessary but dull backstory.

So cheeky! Almameddine’s prose is both irreverent and endearing. Also, his jacket photo displays the following stack of books: Valley of the Dolls, The Annotated Very Hungry Caterpillar, Wasow: The Art of the Author Photo, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Pet Goat, and The Happy Hooker.