Rabih Alameddine - I, The Divine

I had tried to write my memoir by telling an imaginary reader to listen to my story. Come learn about me, I said. I have a great story to tell you because I have led an interesting life. Come meet me. But how can I expect readers to know who I am if I do not tell them about my family, my friends, the relationships in my life? Who am I if not where I fit in the world, where I fit in the lives of the people dear to me? I have to explain how the individual participated in the larger organism, to show how I fit into this larger whole. So instead of telling the reader, Come meet me, I have to say something else.

Come meet my family.

Come meet my friends.

Come here, I say.

Come meet my pride

I used many books as reference or inspiration: Lebanon: Death of a Country by Sandra Mackey; Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk; The Druze Faith by Sami Makarem; Civil War in Lebanon, 1975–92 by Edgar O’Ballance; Crucial Bonds: Marriage Among the Lebanese Druze by Nura Alamuddin and Paul Starr; The Divine Sarah by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale; The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer; and, of course, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino.

Raya Alameddine offered her impeccable French. Asa DeMatteo, despite his skewed priorities, offered his convoluted English. The writer Suleiman Alamuddin generously offered many historical tidbits, chief among them the story of the Druze Sarah. Nicole Aragi remains God’s gift to writers. I owe a debt of gratitude to Barbara Dimmick, Hana Alamuddin, Karim Heneine, Debra Meadows, Michael Denneny, Ashraf Othman, and my editor, Alane Salierno Mason.

I wish to thank the staff of the MacDowell Colony.

I am blessed to have the endless support, guidance, generosity, and patience of my family. I thank them.