Dearborn

Starred review from August 7, 2023
Zeineddine’s striking debut collection details an endearing cast living in the Arab American community in Dearborn, Mich. In “Speedoman,” a group of husbands and wives who routinely lounge in the community pool and spa become obsessed with a newcomer who exclusively wears a Speedo to the pool. The husbands see the stranger as a symbol of their past lives and pine for their youth, while the wives are infatuated with his form and literary interests, for their “thriving book club.” “Marseille” follows the elderly Madame Ayda, who survived the sinking of the Titanic, as she reveals secrets from her past to journalist Ibrahim, including that her husband, Nabil perished in the ship’s sinking. In “Rabbit Stew,” a 17-year-old Lebanese immigrant welcomes his cherished uncle on his first visit to America but discovers his war stories of Beirut may not be completely accurate, causing the narrator to question their bond. Each story strikes a chord, and Zeineddine is adept at finding different angles to engage the collection’s themes of identity, race, and gender. This genuine offering speaks as much to the heart as the head.

Starred review from July 15, 2023
Stories full of humor and warmth about an Arab American community. In his debut collection, Zeineddine toes the impossibly delicate line between pathos and humor with the grace and finesse of a tightrope walker. His subject is Dearborn, Michigan, a city made up primarily of Arab Americans. In 10 stories, Zeineddine brings that community alive. His voice is irresistible--warm, funny, and unrelenting. "Money Chickens" begins: "Some folks store their money in safes; Baba used chickens. I was six the first time I saw him shove a Ziploc bag filled with bills inside a chicken in the kitchen of our two-bedroom house...." The story is nearly impossible to put down. Zeineddine writes as sympathetically from the points of view of his women characters as he does from his men, and in "Yusra," he writes beautifully about Yasser, who on Fridays likes to dress up in heels, lipstick, and a hijab and call himself Yusra. Each of Zeineddine's characters is marvelously complex: Some are devout, some secular; some run cons, some toil in honest work, while others strive toward a creative outlet. "Speedoman" is narrated in the first person plural, first by the men of the community, then by the women, and back again. A stranger has shown up at the local pool with images of Lebanon printed across the backside of his Speedo, inspiring nostalgia--and perhaps some other emotions--in both the men and women. It's a masterfully told story. What Zeineddine can do with a simple storyline and a few pages is a thing of wonder. A fantastic collection heralding the voice of a major new writer.

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Starred review from August 1, 2023
Secrets and shifting identities, dreams dashed and unfulfilled, longings for a homeland scarred by traumatizing violence. Zeineddine's stirring short stories portraying the Lebanese American community in Dearborn, Michigan, hint at the transformative power of fairy tales even though they're rooted in a gritty reality. His characters fabricate their own identities as a defense against immigration officers, nosy parents, or their own self-doubts. A prim housewife finds courage in ""the magic of Halloween."" A battered wife oversteps while seeking to protect a young bride from a similar fate. A would-be writer gives voice to the creations of others while his own creativity is stifled. A young girl becomes obsessed with family tales of death and martyrdom. A stolid family man finds release and joy in cross-dressing. Zeineddine explores conflicts between men and women, parents and children in a rigidly structured society and explores how the tightly drawn boundaries around Dearborn can be simultaneously oppressive and liberating. While many of his characters are too young to have experienced the wars that drove their parents to emigrate, all are marked by them as generational trauma leads to familial violence, fear of outsiders, and a desperate quest for stable respectability. Dearborn is both a communal immigrant origin story and a sharply observed study of grief and loss.

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September 1, 2023

DEBUT Zeineddine's debut collection examines the immigrant experience, the weight of memory, the myths we create, and the meaning of home, in a voice that's forthright and refreshing. The setting is mostly Dearborn, MI, here dubbed the capital of Arab America, but the characters range widely. A young man wants to help an undocumented friend fulfill his dreams of going to Hollywood, but instead they encounter ICE. Several Lebanese American couples who routinely relax at the Ford Community Center pool are taken with a newcomer who arrives every week in a different Speedo, each bearing an emblem of Lebanon on the backside; readers will be as intrigued as the couples are to figure out who he is, but he certainly stirs up their lives. At age 99, Madame Ayda describes leaving her Druze village at 14 with the husband she'd just met and discovering a passion cut short by tragedy. She'll never return home, but in another story, vainglorious Uncle Ramzy comes visiting from Beirut and tries to persuade nephew Amer's parents to do just that, though his own experiences there aren't what they seem. VERDICT Often bittersweet, these stories consistently surprise. Good reading about community, and of special appeal for its insights into the Arab American experience.--Barbara Hoffert

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