ARAB HUMANIST

A debut work argues for a basic-income policy using the tale of a Lebanese woman in America.

Growing up in Beirut, LouLou has a traditional family that discourages any behavior it deems sexual or inappropriate. The Lebanese civil war is raging and religious fervor is on the rise. Organizations like Hezbollah insist that Muslim women wear hijabs. “Uninformed about sexuality at the age of sixteen,” LouLou muses, “I didn’t know the name for vagina in my own Arabic language, nor in my second and third languages, French and English.” At the age of 20, she and her siblings leave the country to live with an uncle in Austin, Texas, where she begins to take college classes. There, she finds herself in an arranged marriage to Maher, a Lebanese man, while in love with an American named Rafael, who turns out to be keeping secrets from her. Feeling as if she has no control over her life, she runs away from her family only to end up homeless, broke, and trapped in an abusive relationship. Interspersed with LouLou’s story are brief essays on the topic of basic income, which Nassif argues would mitigate or prevent many of the problems that afflict LouLou and people like her. The author’s prose is urgent and conversational, whether narrating LouLou’s trials or opining on the necessity of basic income. “If the poor women and men of suburban Beirut had a basic income,” Nassif writes, “many would become free to choose their authentic path without others deciding it for them. Many of these Lebanese women wouldn’t have covered themselves with a hijab or a chador in order to marry and receive income from the Hezb.” Accompanying the text are several striking, full-color illustrations by the author, depicting surreal visions of sexuality and human relationships. It’s an odd, slightly unstable mix of genres. LouLou’s story is memoiristic, without the normal shape of a novel, and the basic-income material, while well argued, feels almost like a non sequitur. Even so, the work cumulatively offers a remarkable portrait of a woman whose well-being is constantly threatened by the caprices of the men around her.

An intriguing but idiosyncratic combination of fiction, art, and political writing.