The True True Story of Raja the Gullible

What work-life boundaries does Raja try to maintain? How are these boundaries crossed earlier in the novel and to what consequences?

How does Alameddine convey the complex geopolitics of the novel through his characters? What patterns emerge in how they engage with and respond to a changing Beirut over the course of sixty years?

From heated speech to charged silence, the conversations and arguments between Raja and his mother span many tones. How does Alameddine reveal such rich subtext in even the earliest interactions between them? How did your understanding of these dynamics develop throughout the novel?

What is the significance of the family dinner table? What do Raja’s and his mother’s differing attitudes toward the object reveal about their characters?

What is the role of deception in the story, both between Raja, his fleeting roommate N, and Mansour, and between Raja and the reader? How does the invocation of Hades echo the developments happening outside the apartment and the lasting impact of Mansour’s stay?

Throughout the novel, Raja’s mother forms new relationships with great ease. She ingratiates herself with a bank worker, Madame Taweel, Raja’s students, and many more. What do you notice about her character’s sociability and why does it continually irk Raja?

How do Raja’s and Nahed’s experiences of queerness differ? Why does Raja keep Nahed at a distance and how does their dynamic evolve later in the novel?

From learning to dance with Micheline to recreating that choreography with Boodie, how does Raja approach each duet differently? What sentiments does the artform facilitate?

How does the development of Raja and Boodie’s relationship over two months underground compare to Raja’s assessment of it at the end of the chapter (p. 215)? How is this response further complicated later in the novel?

While walking through Beirut after the port explosion, Raja recalls his long walk after emerging from underground decades earlier. Through these echoing journeys, what associations emerge for Raja? What other patterns do you notice?

Consider Raja’s retelling of an interaction with Aunt Yasmine that concludes, “She lived in a fantasy” (p. 256). Why does this interpretation make sense for Raja? What do you make of the dynamic between them?

Raja characterizes his reaction to seeing Boodie again as an overreaction, but a justified one (p. 299). Nahed is curious about forgiveness. What does Raja’s stance reveal about his character, character development, and the complex afterlives of trauma that he experienced? How might you have approached or felt about the situation in his position?

Both the title and Raja’s own frequent self-characterizations present him as gullible. Why do you think Alameddine chose gullibility as a central affect of the book? How is the trait affirmed by Raja’s actions and how is it complicated by some of his more resolute stances?

In the conclusion, how does Raja frame the complexities of forgiveness and reconciliation with certain members of his family? What do his evolving relationships reveal about formative and painful moments he experienced with different characters?

Insults and curses garner love and affection from their recipients (as reiterated on p. 307). How does this mode of communication endear characters to each other in the novel? Specifically, the retort “Fuck your mother” recurs throughout the novel. How does its usage, as well as its variations, evolve from the opening scenes to the ending?

What original context for Raja’s relationship to professionalism is revealed later in the novel? How is that commitment challenged in the concluding section of the novel?

How does this latest novel, Alameddine’s seventh, echo themes or motifs from any previous works you’ve read by the author? How did it surprise you?