Rabih Alameddine is the author of the novels Koolaids, I, the Divine, and The Hakawati, and the story collection The Perv.
Finalist for the National Book Award Washington Post Top 50 Fiction
Books of 2014; Kirkus Best Books of 2014; NPR Best Books of 2014;
Amazon 100 Best Books of 2014; The Christian Science Monitor Top 10
Fiction Books of 2014 Praise for AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN "An
Unnecessary Woman is a meditation on, among other things, aging,
politics, literature, loneliness, grief and resilience. If there
are flaws to this beautiful and absorbing novel, they are not
readily apparent."--New York Times "[I]rresistible... [the author]
offers winningly unrestricted access to the thoughts of his
affectionate, urbane, vulnerable and fractiously opinionated
heroine. Aaliya says that when she reads, she tries to 'let the
wall crumble just a bit, the barricade that separates me from the
book.' Mr. Alameddine's portrayal of a life devoted to the
intellect is so candid and human that, for a time, readers can
forget that any such barrier exists."--Wall Street Journal
"Alameddine...has conjured a beguiling narrator in his engaging
novel, a woman who is, like her city, hard to read, hard to take,
hard to know and, ultimately, passionately complex."--San Francisco
Chronicle "[An] opaque self-portrait of an utterly beguiling
misanthrope... Aaliya notes that: "Reading a fine book for the
first time is as sumptuous as the first sip of orange juice that
breaks the fast in Ramadan." You don't have to fast first (in fact
it helps to have gorged on the books that Aaliya translates and
adores) in order to savor Alameddine's succulent fiction."-- Steven
G. Kellman, The Boston Globe "You can't help but love this
character."--Arun Rath, NPR's All Things Considered "A restlessly
intelligent novel built around an unforgettable character...a novel
full of elegant, poetic sentences."--Minneapolis Star Tribune "I
can't remember the last time I was so gripped simply by a novel's
voice. Alameddine makes it clear that a sheltered life is not
necessarily a shuttered one. Aaliya is thoughtful, she's complex,
she's humorous and critical."--NPR.com "[A] powerful intellectual
portrait of a reader who is misread....a meditation on being and
literature, written by someone with a passionate love of language
and the power of words to compose interior worlds. It's about how,
and by what means, we survive. About how, in the end, what is
hollow and unneeded becomes full, essential and enduring."--Earl
Pike, Cleveland Plain Dealer "Beautiful writing...sharp, smart and
often sardonic...an homage to literature."-- Fran Hawthorne, The
National "Reading An Unnecessary Woman is about listening to a
voice -- Aaliya's -- not cantering through a plot, although
powerful events do occur, both in the present and in memory...a
fun, and often funny, book...rich in quirky metaphors... An
Unnecessary Woman is not a game, though; it is a grave, powerful
book. It is the hour-by-hour study of a woman who is struggling for
dignity with every breath...The meaning of human dignity is perhaps
the great theme of literature, and Alameddine takes it on in every
page of this extraordinary book."-- Washington Independent Review
of Books "Playful, brainy and full of zest, An Unnecessary Woman is
an antidote to literary blandness."--Newsday "Aaliya is a
formidable character... When An Unnecessary Woman offers her what
she regards as the corniest of conceits - a redemption arc - it's a
delight to see her take it."--Yvonne Zipp, The Christian Science
Monitor "An Unnecessary Woman is a book lover's book. If you've
ever felt not at home in the world--or in your own skin--or
preferred the company of a good book to that of an actual person,
this book will welcome you with open arms and tell you that you're
not alone. You just might find a home within its pages."-- Julie
Hakim Azzam, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "An intimate, melancholy and
superb tour de force...Alameddine's storytelling is rich with a
bookish humor that's accessible without being condescending. A
gemlike and surprisingly lively study of an interior
life."--Kirkus(starred review) "Studded with quotations and
succinct observations, this remarkable novel by Alameddine is a
paean to fiction, poetry, and female friendship. Dip into it, make
a reading list from it, or simply bask in its sharp, smart
prose."-- Michele Leber, Booklist (starred review) "Alameddine's
most glorious passages are those that simply relate Aalyia's
thoughts, which read like tiny, wonderful essays. A central concern
of the book is the nature of the desire of artistic creators for
their work to matter, which the author treats with philosophical
suspicion. In the end, Aalyia's epiphany is joyful and
freeing."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Acclaimed author
Alameddine (The Hakawati) here relates the internal struggles of a
solitary, elderly woman with a passion for books...Aaliya's life
may seem like a burden or even "unnecessary" to others since she is
divorced and childless, but her humor and passion for literature
bring tremendous richness to her day-to-day life--and to the
reader's... Though set in the Middle East, this book is
refreshingly free of today's geopolitical hot-button issues. A
delightful story for true bibliophiles, full of humanity and
compassion."--Library Journal "Around and about the central
narrative, like tributaries, flow stories of those people Aaliyah
has known...The city of Beirut itself is a character, collapsing,
reshaping, renewing, mod¬ern¬ising as Aaliyah herself grows old.
Aaliyah's mordant wit is lit by Alameddine's exquisite turns of
phrase... An Unnecessary Woman is a story of innumerable things. It
is a tale of blue hair and the war of attrition that comes with
age, of loneliness and grief, most of all of resilience, of the
courage it takes to survive, stay sane and continue to see beauty.
Read it once, read it twice, read other books for a decade or so,
and then pick it up and read it anew. This one's a keeper."--
Aminatta Forna, The Independent (UK) "[W]hat Alameddine offers
here, most of all, is a window into the lives of Beiruti women...
Aaliya, literary devotee, may consider herself "unnecessary"-but
the novel proves very necessary indeed."--Lambda "A novel that
manages to be both quiet and voluptuous, driven by a madcap
intimacy that thoroughly resists all things 'cute' or
'exotic.'"--Dwyer Murphy, Guernica "Beautiful ...despite [Aaliya's]
constant claims that she is unlovable it takes only a few pages of
reading to realize this isn't true - she's extraordinary, even
beguiling. She's tough, opinionated, and deeply caring, but also
passive, insecure, and fearful. Complex, in other words, and real.
The novel is both intimate and expansive, opening out into the
world of politics and war even as it's rooted in the thoughts of
this unnecessary, fascinating person."-- Aruna D'Souza, Riffle.com
"Aaliya is intelligent, acerbic and funny, one of those rare
characters who becomes more real to readers than the people around
them, and will remain will them for a long time."--The Daily Star
(Lebanon) "Aaliya's reminiscences make up "her total globe, her
entire world". In her, we see that feminism resists categorisation
and is not defined by the West. Aaliyah embodies the
self-determination of both the feminist and the writer, and
exhibits vulnerability, determination and wisdom. But, most
important, it is in the honesty of Aaliyah's narration that we see
the passion of the modern woman, full of knowledge and a vibrant
interior world."--Sarah Dempster, The Australian "At once a sublime
encomium to the art of reading well, where the pleasures of the
text are called to the task of self-making, the novel is also a
gentle appeal against loftiness. For every canonical seduction,
there is pause for the folly of disconnection, the vanity of
denial. In Alameddine's examination of memory, translation and
freedom, there is an insistence that life is more than the cruel
absurdities of a reductive reality. An Unnecessary Woman charms
with expressive cynicism and inadvertent optimism, shining a unique
light on the art of storytelling."--Readings (Australia) "This
impossibly beautiful funny novel is a window into another world.
Rabih Alameddine has drawn a fierce and passionate character whose
love of life and literature draws the reader into her labyrinthine
story. An Unneccessary Woman is for anyone who has an enduring love
affair with books, the desire to understand the human condition or
a glimpse into the rich and exotic straddling of life that the city
of Beirut epitomises."--The Hoopla.com (Australia) "An Unnecessary
Woman dramatizes a wonderful mind at play. The mind belongs to the
protagonist, and it is filled with intelligence, sharpness and
strange memories and regrets. But, as in the work of Calvino and
Borges, the mind is also that of the writer, the arch-creator. His
tone is ironic and knowing; he is fascinated by the relationship
between life and books. He is a great phrase-maker and a brilliant
writer of sentences. And over all this fiercely original act of
creation is the sky of Beirut throwing down a light which is both
comic and tragic, alert to its own history and to its mythology,
guarding over human frailty and the idea of the written word with
love and wit and understanding and a rare sort of wisdom."--Colm
Toibin "The extraordinary if "unnecessary" woman at the center of
this magnificent novel built into my heart a sediment of life lived
in reverse, through wisdom, epiphany, and regret. This
woman--Aaliya is her name--for all her sly and unassuming modesty,
is a stupendous center of consciousness. She understands time, and
folly, and is wonderfully comic. She has read everything under the
sun (as has her creator, Alameddine), and as a polyglot mind of an
old world Beirut, she reminds us that storehouses of culture, of
literature, of memory, are very fragile things indeed. They exist,
shimmering, as chimeras, in the mind of Aaliya, who I am so happy
to feel I now know. Her particularity, both tragic and lightly
clever, might just stay with me forever."--Rachel Kushner "There
are many ways to break someone's heart, but Rabih Alameddine is one
rare writer who not only breaks our hearts but gives every broken
piece a new life. With both tender care and surgical exactness, An
Unnecessary Woman leads us away from the commonplace and the
mundane to enter a world made of love for words, wisdom, and
memories. No words can express my gratitude for this book."
--Yiyun Li "With An Unnecessary Woman, Rabih Alameddine has
accomplished something astonishing: a novel that is at once
expansive and intimate, quiet and full of feeling. Aaliya is one of
the more memorable characters in contemporary fiction, and every
page of this extraordinary novel demands to be savored and
re-read."--Daniel Alarcón "An Unnecessary Woman offers a testament
to the saving virtue of literature and an unforgettable protagonist
. . . . Alameddine maintains a steady electric current between past
and present, fantasy and reality."--D Repubblica (Italy) "A
contemporary fable about passion: passion for literature and the
passions of love."--L'Unita (Italy) "Passion is the key to this
book, which has already been hailed as a masterpiece: passion for a
man, and passion for books."--Oggi (Italy) A Daily Beast Hot
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