by Karim Dimechkie
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2015
304 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture-baseball and barbeques-and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely. "When we are in America," Reed (for he goes by Reed in America, not Rasheed) tells Max, "we are Americans."
Rasheed has a singular purpose in life: to provide Max with a joyful childhood. He showers his son with gifts out of a belief that he deserves all and is capable of anything. Max wants nothing more than to convince his father that he is a successful single parent. The only thing that can disrupt their peaceful universe is the truth-which it does, with force.
When Max turns seventeen, he learns from Rasheed's ex-girlfriend that his father has been lying to him. Max's understanding of the world is so rocked that he is subsequently launched on an uncertain mission to Beirut and then Paris.
Lifted by the Great Nothing is a startlingly graceful, and often hilarious, coming-of-age story about the lengths we go to preserve the untruths we live by. With its poignant relationships, unsettling misadventures, and surprising love stories, it is a touching and devastating portrait of a young man coming to terms with his country's-and his own-violent past.
"The book is a well-written, engaging story, a bit too overloaded but nevertheless showing a writer with true potential." - Publishers Weekly
"Dimechkie's character-driven coming-of-age novel is less about the immigrant experience than about a literal and figurative journey of self-discovery ...disparate elements come together seamlessly as Max struggles to deal with the new realities of his life." - Booklist
"A promising debut penned in vivid, suspenseful prose that gives a new spin to the classic tale of fathers and sons." - Kirkus
"A rendering of a family torn apart not only by a civil war, but by a stubborn unwillingness to concede to the differences within itself, Lifted by the Great Nothing is awkward, challenging, and funny. It's sharp and frank - and, like any good family, it stays with you" - The Paris Review blog
This information about Lifted by the Great Nothing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Karim Dimechkie was a Michener Fellow. Before that he taught English in Paris. This is his first book. He lives in New York City.
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