Given that Rabih Alameddine's novel “The Wrong End of the Telescope” is about an Arab American trans woman's trip to provide medical support to Syrian refugees you might think this is a novel which is only about the big social issues of our age. It definitely is about those issues, but it's more importantly about the individuals involved with all their unique personalities and points of view. The author movingly humanizes a world that many of us only see mediated through the news showing the strengths and foibles of a wide array of fascinating people that she encounters. It's written in a style which is extremely enjoyable to read without exploiting the circumstances or people involved merely for the sake of entertainment. The plot is also effective and engaging without overwhelming the narrative. In other words, its primary motivation isn't to make a political point in the way of “American Dirt” but to present people who are neither virtuous or villainous. They are full of complexities and our fleeting encounters with them emphasize their uniqueness. Even if this makes it at times more of a meandering novel than Cummins' book which is like a conventional thriller, it means Alameddine's story is much more meaningful and successful.
Mina is a Lebanese doctor who answers a friend's appeal to help in her organization's efforts to assist refugees that are arriving on the island of Lesbos amidst their transit to other European locations. She's also dealing with her own personal issues especially to do with the family that rejected her and she uses this trip as an opportunity to reconnect with her brother. Mina is aware that this journey isn't just a philanthropic one, but also has to do with her own ego – although, perhaps less so than some of her fellow volunteers whose primary objective is to take selfies at the refugee camps and beached dinghies. This novel is also about the author because many chapters are written in the second person where Mina is speaking to Alameddine himself who has also travelled to the island and is dealing with his own life issues. It's a fascinating and successful way for the author to circumvent the dilemma of writing a timely novel about certain political issues, acknowledging his limited personal involvement and avoiding only making it a story about himself. While the intimate concerns of Mina and the author are completely valid to consider they aren't caught in an emergency predicament like the refugees they are sincerely trying to help.
The character who is facing a dire crisis in this novel is Sumaiya, a matriarch who has been forced to flee Syria with her family and who is suffering from a terminal illness. She's a vibrant and opinionated individual who desperately wants to help her family move onto a better life even when her own existence is coming to an end. It's extremely moving how we learn about her past, the atrocious predicament she's in and the way Mina gets involved with assisting her. In this way she becomes much more than just a statistic we'd read about in the news. The same goes for many of the refugees we meet through this story including a teenage boy who aspires to become a pop star and a mother who painstakingly decorates the interior of a tent she lives in with sequins “with results Liberace would have envied.” Alameddine writes about these individuals in a way where they are not simply victims but dynamic personalities who rise above their circumstances. It makes this novel a truly inspiring and poignant book.
