The Harm We Do Ourselves

This book is a gripping and honest look at what it means to be gay in Lebanon, where individuals often face oppression and invisibility. Through Sami's story, we see the struggle of someone forced to confront both external societal pressures and their own internal conflicts. The writing is raw and personable, making Sami’s journey feel deeply real and relatable. What stands out most is how the book addresses the complexities of living in a place where homosexuality is still taboo. It doesn't shy away from tough questions about the impact of both local culture and Western politics, offering a unique perspective on a global issue. This is a book that starts necessary conversations about identity, self-destruction, and the fight for acceptance in a society that often refuses to see you. Eye-opening and thought-provoking, it’s an important read for anyone looking to better understand the struggles faced by gay people in Lebanon and beyond.

The Harm We Do Ourselves is not a mere novel, with different characters developing in a certain predetermined environment and evolving each in his or her own way. We are rather at the heart of a play, which one would really like to see enacted in a theatre in Beirut, London, New York or anywhere for that matter where homosexuality may be discussed and where woke ideology may be critiqued on its own terms and made to answer. Sami is not just an angst-ridden homosexual, nor an individual out on a crusade of hetero-bashing. He is firstly one who refuses to occupy the margin and remain there, and especially one who goes against the current grain of strategic essentialism – as if there were some essences left and even less invented and discarded at will – and that novel woke idea which makes anyone outside a group unable by definition to truly engage with it, thus inaugurating a world of communities unable to truly communicate. Sami is a happy walking-wounded man, who is a whirlwind of awareness of a community’s failures and its own internal strife – with the unwitting harm it has brought on itself itself. The reader finds this protagonist simple at first, as he engages in everyday banter with his friend Maya. But the everyday slowly unravels a painful (hi)story of rebellion and resistance which has brought a lucidity the reader discovers in complex layers which come to form a dialogue worthy of a stage enactment. A definitely excellent and enjoyable read.

I'm just going to purchase the book I have been long awaiting as the talent behind this pen is just well no spoilers buy it on my responsibility.