The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)

Zalfa is Raja’s mother. Zalfa has an often expletive-laden sense of humor, and one of her favorite phrases, spoken always in jest, is “fuck your mother” (9). Her sense of humor is in part a response to the difficulties of her marriage and to the absurdity of being a citizen in a country that so often fails to provide for its people. Zalfa’s sense of humor allows her to reconnect with Raja, forms the basis for her friendship with Madame Taweel, and endears her to many people she meets, including most of Raja’s own students. Zalfa is also characterized by her strength. She is a strong-willed, assertive woman who refuses to be bullied. This, too, is in part a response to her difficult marriage: Once she finally stands up to her husband, she realizes that she is stronger than she thought she was.

Zalfa confronts a series of antagonists in the novel, from her own family members, to her bank, to the Lebanese government, always demonstrating herself as an individual unafraid to speak her mind. Zalfa is also, in contrast to Raja, an extrovert. Raja recalls: “She couldn’t abide being alone, so she stuffed her life with people” (21). Due to her extroversion, she has a wider circle of friends than Raja does and enjoys, particularly after her husband’s death, the freedom to forge new relationships and assert her authentic self during social situations.

Zalfa also teaches Raja the importance of forgiveness and that family can be a source of love and support. She and Raja reconcile, but she also encourages him to reframe his ideas about Yasmine and Nahed, showing Raja that if people grow and change, Raja should feel free to redraw the boundaries of their relationship.

Nahed is Raja’s cousin. As a child, Nahed is a tomboy who prefers roughhousing with the other neighborhood children to playing with dolls at home. Much to the consternation of her parents, she is not a normatively “feminine” girl and resists gendered socialization much in the same way that Raja does. Although Raja and Nahed share oppositional places within their families, they do not become friends when they are young. This is because Nahed has a strong, domineering personality and teases Raja. She also beats him in a family-sponsored wrestling match that leaves Raja angry and mortified.

They do, however, reconnect as adults. Nahed becomes more comfortable with her queer sexuality and more circumspect in general. She admits to Raja that she admired his confidence during their teenage years but found him too aloof to befriend. Raja realizes that Nahed is more self-reflective than he has ever given her credit for, and the two begin to bond over everything they have in common.

When Nahed moves in with Raja, he is grateful for the respect she shows him in his home and appreciates that she works “judiciously at being unobtrusive” (255). That the two are able to reconcile speaks to the novel’s broader interest in forgiveness and the way that familial relationships can evolve and change shape over time.

Yasmine is Raja’s aunt. Like many of Raja’s family members, she objects to his “feminized” interests when he is young and to his sexuality when he is an adult. Yasmine is openly unkind to Raja as a child and because of it he develops a strong antipathy toward her. Until she and her daughter are forced to move in with Raja after the port explosion, it has been many years since Raja spoke with her. Yasmine is also unkind to Zalfa until she gives birth to Farouk, a male heir. Raja does not understand why his mother puts up with Yasmine, given her history.

Nevertheless, Yasmine, in spite of her complexities and faults, becomes part of the novel’s interrogation of fraught familial relationships and of the possibility of forgiveness. When she moves in with Raja and Zalfa, she is nearing death and battling dementia. She uses a harmful slur openly in conversation with Raja, but he realizes that she is no longer a threat to him and that he has become immune to her hatred and bigotry. That she is so helpless allows Raja to see her through a different lens, and he finds that he actually enjoys her company in part because “her moments of lucidity were rare” (255).

Ultimately, Raja learns to appreciate the experience of living in close quarters with his family, and Yasmine’s characterization at this point in the novel reflects the way that family relationships can evolve over time.

Farouk is Raja’s brother. Like Raja’s father, he is an antagonistic figure whom Raja dislikes. The feeling is mutual, as Raja recalls: “I disliked my brother. He loathed me” (23). As the firstborn son, Farouk is the family’s favorite. His father prefers him to Raja, but even Zalfa often takes his side when he and Raja are young. Farouk is more normatively masculine than Raja, and as a child enjoys the kind of pastimes his father wishes Raja would embrace. Farouk enjoys his status as the preferred son and lords his father’s favoritism over Raja.

Additionally, Farouk is an unkind, manipulative individual. As a young person, this toxicity takes the form of antagonism toward Raja, but as an adult, Farouk is even hostile toward Zalfa. When she goes to live with Farouk and his family, he is unkind and stingy with her, refusing to pay for basic necessities or to treat her as a valued member of the family. Farouk has no natural feelings of warmth toward either his mother or his brother, and after Zalfa leaves his home to return to Raja’s in Beirut, their relationship fizzles out.

Although Farouk does bully Raja and Zalfa, they each stand up to him at key moments, proving that although Farouk has the nastier personality, Raja and Zalfa possess greater strength of character and stronger personal ethics.

Raja’s father is an unkind and domineering man. A static character, he does not change and grow as the narrative progresses. He values traditional gender roles and traditional marriage, expecting Zalfa to cook, clean, and keep house for him. He also expects docility from Zalfa and is upset when she stands up for herself or for Raja. Zalfa does observe mourning traditions when he dies, but Zalfa is ultimately much happier without her husband and experiences freedom for the first time in her life.

Raja’s father favors Farouk in part because Farouk is his firstborn son, but also because Farouk is more normatively masculine than Raja. Raja’s father objects to Raja’s “effeminacy” and tries, even when Raja is a small child, to steer him toward a more traditional path. He does not want Raja to participate in music classes or performance, and when he realizes his son’s interest in playing with dolls, he purchases toy cars for him instead. He is furious when he learns that Raja organized the cars into a tea party and communicates his displeasure to Raja angrily.

Although not an antagonist in the traditional sense, Raja’s father is an antagonistic presence in both Raja’s and Zalfa’s lives, and both are happier when they no longer have the burden of cohabiting with him or hearing his opinions on their identities and interests.

Boodie is one of Raja’s classmates, a combatant in the civil war, and ultimately Raja’s captor and sexual abuser. Boodie’s status as a fighter speaks to the war’s brutality but also to the way that it reaches into individual Lebanese households. Many of the soldiers in the war’s various militias are local young men like Boodie, and it is for this reason that the post-war years still simmer with hatred: Many of the militias were organized by neighborhood, and once the war ended, it would be possible to walk just a few blocks and run into someone, once a combatant and now a civilian again, who had committed a wartime atrocity.

Boodie is also noteworthy for holding Raja captive and initiating a coercive sexual relationship that Raja will later come to see as abuse. The author does not provide Boodie’s backstory, but because he also has sex with Micheline, it is apparent that he, too, is exploring his sexuality. Later, the novel suggests that he has sexual relationships with both men and women. Boodie claims to be keeping Raja safe from men who, knowing that Raja witnessed two murders, want to kill him. Holding Raja captive against his will and subjecting him to sex acts that were sometimes unwanted and that sometimes confused Raja makes Boodie an abuser and an antagonistic figure within the world of the novel.

Bodie’s declaration of love when he meets Raja later in life speaks to Boodie’s lack of self-reflection and remorse: He still characterizes their relationship as consensual even though it could not truly have been, considering he was holding Raja captive the entire time.

Madame Taweel is Zalfa’s friend. A local gangster, she is part of the novel’s broader engagement with Lebanon’s culture of corruption. Madame Taweel makes her living in part by selling generators to the residents of Raja’s neighborhood. Since the Lebanese government is not capable of regulating its energy sector and guaranteeing working power to its citizens, locals like Madame Taweel do a brisk business selling generators to people like Raja and his neighbors.

Madame Taweel’s connection to organized crime is, in part, why Raja objects so strongly to her friendship with Zalfa. He already knows who Madame Taweel is when Zalfa makes her acquaintance, and frets that he “couldn’t imagine a worse woman” that Zalfa could befriend (67). Madame Taweel is a competent and capable woman whose criminal enterprise extends beyond her sale of generators. She is capable of solving all kinds of problems and becomes a key part of Zalfa’s and, eventually, Raja’s support structure. Although Raja takes issue with her participation in the country’s black market, Madame Taweel is actually thoughtful and caring. She values Zalfa’s friendship and shows genuine concern for Zalfa time and time again. She goes out of her way to help her friends in their times of need, even when doing so costs her time and money.

Like Zalfa, Madame Taweel has a larger-than-life personality and does not conform to societal expectations for women. She speaks her mind, is assertive, and makes her own decisions. She has an irreverent sense of humor, and Raja often comes home to find his mother and Madame Taweel in fits of raucous laughter.