@littlek,
Littlek, you mean Taqwacores?
Or Beat the Reaper?
Taqwacores is very unusual. I haven't finished it; I will read a chapter and then set it aside for a week or two. It is "young" in its energy and patois. The Guardian comments: "The Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature."
It is a learning experience, bigtime. This is a Muslim punk house in Buffalo, NY, inhabited by burqa-wearing "riot grrls," mohawked Sufis, straightedge Sunnis, gay Muslims, drunk Muslims, and feminists, etc....their delapidated house has a hole smashed in the wall to indicate the direction of Mecca. During the first few pages, a resident uses a pizza box as a prayer rug.
The backpiece says that it was originally published by the author on photocopiers and spiral-bound by hand...has since been published in foreign translations, become the basis for two films, and is taught in various colleges and universities as a "Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims."
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell is great fun, by turns hilarious and horrifying. I read it through in a few days. It is the story of a former mafia-involved guy who entered witness protection and became a doctor. The author wrote this book during the last year of med school and residency to keep himself sane. It's a first novel. I hope he gives up the hospital for writing.
