I’m in Seattle, Where are You? by Mortada Gzar: book review

I’m in Seattle, Where are You? (2021) is set in Seattle.

Mortada Gzar arrives in Seattle, fifteen years after he met an American soldier, Morise, in his home country Iraq in the 1990s. When Mortada met Morise, they fell in love, in a country that discriminates against same-sex relationships. He was a student at the University of Baghdad at the time, worked for the last five years as an oil company engineer, and is now a novelist and artist in America.

Mortada lives in Seattle in a guesthouse with three men: Josie, choreographer Liao, and Erick – all HIV positive. Seattle was where Morise was from. Mortada wonders where he is, after all these years.

Mortada, the narrator, describes his childhood in Iraq – in poverty and in years of discrimination and the brutality of the Baath party, and how he met Morise. He details his country’s history, politics, and authoritarian regime. In Iraq, he had to conceal his real self. Now, in America, Erick advises him to shave his beard to have ‘less trouble’ finding a job. His beard was just one layer of his concealment.

In America, life is just as isolating as he comes to terms with his new life, while trying to hang onto his lost past love.

There are interesting themes in this novel, such as identity, resilience, and loss. Being a translation, there are over-used words and phrases, and their repetition is annoying. It also moves back and forth in time with little structure, making it confusing. Overall, there is little consistency of the enriching episodes to make it a sustained good read.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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