I Can't Think Straight in Queereaders

Jan 09, 2015 Nancy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books, outlaw-reviews, shelf-inflicted, fiction, gay

Cross-posted at Outlaw Reviews and at Shelf Inflicted

This was the perfect book to read while I was snowed in and work was closed.

Tala is a Palestinian living in London. She’s very outgoing and forthright. After three engagements, her parents really hope this one will stick. Hani is a very nice guy and Tala loves him. Leyla is an Indian Muslim. She works at a job she’s not passionate about, while her true love is writing. Other than a mutual attraction, Tala and Leyla have little in common. They ...more

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Jun 15, 2017 Ashley rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: adults, queer-content, romance-novel

What a waste of potential. I was looking forward to this book, which seemed so well loved and hit so many of my wish list items for lesbian romance (most notably, diversity), but honestly even if I hadn't had high hopes for this book it still would have disappointed.

The writing. My god, the writing. I will give it to Sarif: I had a very well rounded sense of the setting, right down to the minute details of the pattern on the china and the irrelevant backstory of how the main character's chain-sm What a waste of potential. I was looking forward to this book, which seemed so well loved and hit so many of my wish list items for lesbian romance (most notably, diversity), but honestly even if I hadn't had high hopes for this book it still would have disappointed.

The writing. My god, the writing. I will give it to Sarif: I had a very well rounded sense of the setting, right down to the minute details of the pattern on the china and the irrelevant backstory of how the main character's chain-smoking mother came into possession of the 24-piece set from her dear frugal lithe auntie who never would have approved of the way beautiful Tala let her slightly-too-small shoe dangle off her immaculately pedicured foot when she crossed her enviable legs shyly. Then Leyla woke dreamily and exited the comfort of her room to quietly tiptoe down the stairs for breakfast, fastidiously avoiding the lone errant squeaking floorboard she had always avoided ever since she was a precocious adorable lean small child of 8 when she learned with eruditic certainty that her mother found the raucous noise irredeemable.

You might think it's a joke, but the book had a ridiculous amount of adjectives and adverbs, and the scene transitions were all like this. New scenes and changes in point of view are not separated by a double space, just a new paragraph. It threw me every single time, and the point of view switches five times in a chapter without notice. Really amateur stuff, like maybe the editor gave up.

The story & main characters. Honestly, what story, what characters. I can't even muster a question mark. The book spent so much time on how overbearing and useless both characters' mothers are, the backstory of one of the sisters who disappears from the narrative about halfway through the book, how kind and progressive the main characters' prospective male partners are, etc, that you barely get to see anything develop between the two leads. The book even ends with a scene of Tala's mom and Hani the ex-partner, and the last line is that Hani smiles. Like, who? Why would I care? Ali, Leyla's ex, of course gets pushed into a sloppy will-they-or-won't-they with Leyla's sister (gross) but then stares longingly at Leyla as he drives away from her and Tala (ALSO GROSS). Can I tell you something about Tala? Um... she's apparently really forthright when you meet her. She... likes Leyla? And what about Leyla? Leyla is an emerging writer, of course, so famous, the best, the most famous, her writing is just taking off and so many people want to meet her. What else, what else... She's really into Tala? And they really like each other because they get along. Boy do they get along those two, yup. And how does their relationship progress from that one time one of them went down on the other at the beginning of their friendship which started maybe a month ago? (view spoiler) No development on the main characters whatsoever.

Nitpicking. My main nitpicky issue seems to be one of the most celebrated moments in the story by fans of the book and the movie (which I have not seen): when Reema finally drinks the tea Rani has spat in. This whole spit sub-plot is a story people with servants tell themselves as part of a mythology where they abdicate their role in oppressing and exploiting the poor by pretending the poor have an equal amount of power in their relationship and can actually score daily victories over their oppressors when they don't like them. In reality, Rani is probably paid little, her children will never be able to move up in the world, and if she was caught spitting in her masters' food she would not be able to find similar work in the family's high society circle and her own family would struggle to survive. She is absolutely at their mercy, and her real-life counterparts are not done any favours by this cliché, which just stokes suspicion against the servant class and justifies a lot of abuse from their navel-gazing overlords.

The mom thing. Aren't moms the worst???? The dads in this story are so laid back and have no problem with their daughters' gayness. The moms are backwards as heck! Don't get me wrong--I love that a Muslim man can be shown to be supportive of his gay daughter, and that the two main Middle Eastern men seem to think it's no big deal either. That was good! Good! But both moms being overbearing ignorant old ladies was a bit tired. Everyone in this book seems to be born pro-gay or anti-gay and the anti-gay ones aren't given any room to get over it. Again, it comes down to nothing being properly developed in this trite little tale.

It's possible to be able to stand reading this book, if you don't care at all about form or a well told story (not to judge--many people don't give a lick about style and are happy to go along for a ramble if it's got lesbians in it. I'm glad they have so many options for entertainment in this world while I languish, increasingly bitter, as the world fails to live up to my standards). Maybe a queer Muslim teen will read this and fall in love with it, then learn it's been made into a movie, and then she'll return to the book in her mid-20s and think, "Omg I used to settle for this type of thing. I could totally write something better than this." And she will. That is the substantial power this book has, so I don't want to write it off completely. I'm just impatient for the better stories this thing might inspire. ...more

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Jul 31, 2009 Gwen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2009-read, lgbt

I must confess, I watched the movie before I read this book.

Shamim Sarif tells the story of two women fighting for independence within their families and struggling to determine their own identities. Tala is the head-strong, Palestinian, Christian, who lives in Amman, Jordan with her wealthy family. Leyla is the Muslim, Indian, who lives in the London suburbs with her family. The two met and must determine what love is worth.

The characters, both main and supporting, are well developed in this n ...more

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Apr 19, 2017 Grady rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

‘Her first fiancé was my best friend at university, I met Tala through him’

British author Shamim Sarif is also a film director and screenwriter and speaker – she has spoken at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) events worldwide, at the INK (platform for the exchange of cutting-edge ideas and inspiring stories) Conference in India and DLD (Digital Life Design) in Munich. Her corporate speaking events have included Deloitte, Goldman Sachs and Citibank in London and Viacom in New York. Now Sha ...more

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