I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

I've just finished reading I, the Divine. I bought it only two days ago. it's indeed one of the subtlest and most engaging novels i've ever read, and the most innovative ever. The novel has anything but a chronological order and doesn't abide by one narrative technique; it uses as many as you can imagine..from stream of consciousness, to flash-backs, omniscient narrator here and first-person there. It's entirely written in first chapters where some stories resume pages after they started. Sometimes the same story is re-told in a different style- or language!- the moment you think your mind had shifted far from it. At one point, you get the impression that you're reading more than one novel by different authors! The characters are intricately sketched, through different points of view. The dialogues are cleverly made, suggestive and most importantly genuine and true. A Lebanese myself, I couldn't but identify with all the Lebanese characters in the story. Amazing! Rabih Alameddine, we're proud of you.

Just like Adonis noted, this novel is completely on point. The life that Sarah Nour El-Din shares with us is one that is rarely so succinctly shown in public, with such truth - especially since Arabs/Arab American's do not ever like to air their "dirty laundry". It had me completely addicted - It was as if I was watching glimpses of my family and friends lives...and that I was Sarah.

I could not believe that the book is fiction. I laughed, cried, and felt the terror with Sarah. Sarah has an incredible multi-dimensional story interconnected with every member of her family. All of this while trying to figure out where she belongs. Rabih's story telling style let you gaze through the eyes of key people in the story, making you a willing participant in Sarah's life.Rabih did an excellent job by guiding the reader through the ups and downs of her life, and bringing forward the intricate quarks of the Lebanese Druze culture and the language.As a Druze and Arab-American, I connected with Sarah and her family from the first pages until the Introduction at the end. I was glued to the book, which I read in one day, although I am not an avid book reader. I also love the never ending chapter 1. However there are two parts that I did not favor, chapter 1, pp 192-201 due to violence, and pp 231-240 for the dream/faint sequence. Other than that the book is excellent.

In our current literary era of quirky, edgy characters fashioned solely for the purpose of being quirky and edgy (e.g., those terribly inauthentic women in Ya Ya Sisterhood, any character of Kingsolver's, most of the women's books of recent years), Alameddine's Sarah is a sigh of relief. Her tales, each an attempt to start off her memoirs, add up to tell the story of a life unique and absolutely compelling that feels, somehow, completely new and comfortably familiar. She is delicious: haughty, clueless, touching, exasperating, deep, shallow, and outrageously funny. The chapter about her tenure as an AIDS support volunteer once again illuminates Alameddine's breathtaking gift for presenting horror with a humor that never makes fun, never downplays, and neither winks nor blinks. Not since A Confederacy of Dunces have we seen anything as delightful as Sarah. This is a book to read, re-read, and only lend to a friend if he gives you something of great value to hold as guarantee of return.

A perfect read for the times! Yes: I, THE DIVINE is an innovative novel--and a brilliant one at that. But what really makes it tick is the frustrated, complex Sarah, who chapter after chapter, sorts out her story--and finally her family's story too. Plenty of surprises, strong and striking characters, and writing that is sometimes stark and sometimes evocative.And, although it certainly wasn't written with this in mind, I found that I, THE DIVINE, with its Lebanese and Lebanese-American characters, is a poignant reminder just now that all cultures are really made up of individuals. Their triumphs and their hurts and recognitions co-alesce over the generations into histories that touch us all.A definite must read.