One Last Drink At Guapa-A book review

 

Blurb -

Set over the course of twenty-four hours, One Last Drink at Guapa follows Rasa, a gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, and trying to carve out a life for himself in the midst of political and social upheaval. Rasa spends his days translating for Western journalists, and pining for the nights when he can sneak his lover, Taymour, into his room. Then one morning Rasa's grandmother, the woman who raised him, catches them in bed together. The following day — the day leading up to Taymour's wedding — Rasa is consumed by the search for his best friend Maj, a fiery activist and drag queen star of the underground bar, Guapa, who has been arrested by the police. Ashamed to go home and face his grandmother, and reeling from the potential loss of the three most important people in his life, he roams the city’s slums and prisons, the lavish weddings of the country’s elite, and the bars where outcasts and intellectuals drink to a long-lost revolution. Each new encounter leads him closer to confronting his own identity, as he revisits his childhood and probes the secrets that haunt his family. As Rasa confronts the simultaneous collapse of political hope and his closest personal relationships, he is forced to discover the roots of his alienation and try to re-emerge into a society that may never accept him.

For a book set in 24 hours, this was a slow book. What should have spanned over a course of a day told the story of Rasa’s entire life in forms of flashbacks. This book is written in reminiscences. I think too many of them. Maybe I am comparing it to other books which are set in a span of one day and that made me a little biased about the pace. But to be honest there wasn’t much plot involved either.  

It also had minimal character development. Expecting character development from side characters when the novel is set in 24hrs is unrealistic but as it is a book where the MC spends most of his time self-reflecting we could have gotten a bit more character development from him. 

Maybe its realistic. You cannot get over internalised homophobia in one day no matter how much self-reflection you do. But I wish I could have just lost myself in the story as I was expecting to. Maybe I was expecting too much.

All the side characters seem a bit hollow. I liked Maj’s character who was more well-rounded than the other ones. Teta gets the most screen time among all the side characters but she doesn’t get much of an arc even though the story traces her from even before Rasa’s birth. No, I am wrong about Teta’s character development, it is there but it is very rare to see a character degrade rather than develop in a positive manner. It’s not much but it’s there.

Much of Rasa’s personality comes from the fact that his mother left him. In fact, that’s the centre point of his back story. But we don’t get much from that conflict either. He finds a means to contact his mother but never does. He thinks about it often, resents his mother for leaving but never really takes a step towards it. Suddenly at the end of the book there’s a mention of a safe box out of nowhere that his mother left him. Ummmmm…….. honestly it doesn’t really do much in terms of closure either. I guess you could term the ending as open ended or even hopeful, but looking at Rasa’s character I don’t really have much hope of further action. But who knows maybe the unread letters by his mother might spur him into action. Maybe. If you are very optimistic about life.

The other main presence in Rasa’s life is Taymour. The love of his life. His Habibi. Oh, how I love this word Habibi. I also love the name Taymour. This book has beautiful names. Taymour is complicated. He is a mask and I don’t think I can even call his choices cowardice. The thing about Rasa’s is that he is true to at least himself and tries to not judge anyone of their lifecycle. But with Taymour he judges Maj and the way he lives but still accepts him because he is Rasa’s friend. But is it really acceptance if you only accept when you know them and accept them as an exception in your mind. He also lives in a façade of a world that his parents and the society created for him. I wouldn’t blame him because the stakes are different for him. On the other hand, since he is so privileged and from the upper echelon of the society he could have taken a stand, he had the power. I could go on in circles and circles about his character and still not be satisfied with his character. I’ll let you decide.

End comment about this book is that I did not like the book. It was not a bad read and if I am to rate it, it would be a 2.5 star read. But I definitely not pick it up again. I would recommend it to people who like slow reads and introspective books.

Peace

XOXO