Only the Lonely

By Gary Zebrun

Book Overview

Asim Zahid is ready to bust out of Lackawanna, a rundown steel town outside Buffalo, New York. But his dream of a bright future at the University of Michigan is derailed when his father dies, leaving behind two last wishes: that Asim keep open the cherished Bethlehem Theater and befriend Sonia, his old man's longtime mistress, now suffering from Parkinson's disease. Although Asim and Sonia are bound together by a shared passion for the celluloid dreams that flicker across the movie house screen, his conflicting desire to be a good son is tested by rapidly changing events.Soon there's another reason for the restless son to stay in Lackawanna: Billy, an Irish redhead who flirts with him from the window of the Pig Iron Pub across the street from the theater. Asim begins to wonder whether he might be happy in his hometown after all - until he discovers that his brother, Tarik, is headed off to a mysterious training camp in the Afghan desert. Meanwhile, Asim grows more concerned for Sonia, whose mind is becoming a mishmash of distant memories of Russia and the movies she has anchored her life in. And when Asim receives a package containing the skull of a Jewish boy and is compelled to answer the call of Tarik's militant friends, a terrifying and ultimately deadly chain of events is set in motion, culminating on September 11, 2001.

Gary Zebrun's coming-of-age novel - part thriller, part love letter to classic movies - returns to print, accompanied by an introduction by Jim Shepard.

"Coming of age in a dying American town is hard enough. But if you're Middle Eastern and gay ... Zebrun's ruminative second novel captivates through the complexity and vulnerability of its characters and the excellence of its prose, polished to a luminous transparency." - Kirkus

"This quietly perceptive, insightfully written novel ... doesn't speculate but lets the chilling tale play out to a climax that is as frightening as it seems inevitable." - The Providence Journal

"Only the Lonely is a perceptive work of modern fiction, a gripping tale of dreams dashed amidst the dust of 9/11 ... a truly involving narrative about a teenager named Asim, his father's dying wish, a passion for cinema, and a country hurtling toward September 11." - Buffalo Spree Magazine

"With his memorable cast and nicely underplayed big themes, Zebrun delivers a new and worthy perspective on the 9/11 experience." - Publisher's Weekly

"A major fiction writing talent." - Ron Hansen

"A rich dive into the tempest of family, the cold depths of loneliness and the riptide of fundamentalism ... haunting." - JustOut, Portland, Oregon

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1959902393
• ISBN13: 9781959902393
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Requeered Tales
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

I wound up liking this book quite a lot, but at first I found myself unexpectedly resistant, comparing it at every turn to John Updike's recent novel TERRORIST which shares some of the same themes and something of the same milieu. And really on almost every count TERRORIST was winning out. But then I let myself settle into Gary Zebrun's rhythms The sadness of a decaying theater, the palace of dreams forced to face reality, is always seductive, though Zebrun doesn't do anything new with it, but who could after FOLLIES and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW made this such a ubermotif of the 1970s? Individual movie memories of Asim and Sonia are pleasing and poignant, but some of them fall flat. Zevrun tries hard to make something of the movies playing at the Bethlehem Theater in the weeks preceding 9/11, but GHOST WORLD and FROM HELL with Johnny Depp just don't have the emotional resonance that he tries to hang off of them. Sonia herself, the Russian mistress of Asim's dead father, is like a crazy Latvian scramble of Blanche DuBois and Mary Tyrone, the sort of part Simone Signoret was often forced to take in her old age, and reading her adventures here makes me wish Signoret was still with us for one last stab at an Oscar. I always like a book with a good strong conflict between brothers, and the one between sectarian Tarik and the laissez-faire Asim is piping hot. Tarik can't stand the loose ways of the infidels in Lackawanna, and he finds evidence everywhere that his brother has defected to the side of the heathen. The brother walks around their home naked, when their religion says that it's sinful for one man to see another without his clothes (or even to look on one's own body while naked, even in a mirror). Both boys suffer from the lack of a cohesive family unit, and the whole suffering Rust Belt mentality of the citizens around them mirrors the familial disintegration in myriad ways. Sometimes the whole town seems thigh-high in vulgarity, random acts of violence, and the uncomfortable feeling of not enough padding between life and death. I will look forward with interest to whatever Gary Zebrun decides to give us next, and I'll look backwards to find a copy of his first novel which somehow I missed out on.

Well-written, character-driven story may not be for everyone.

Asim Zahid is a 19 year old gay boy stuck in the steel industry blue collar town of Lakawanna NY, his plans to go away to college at least postponed temporarily by the unexpected death of his father, and Asim's decision to remain in town to run the family business, the town's old movie theatre. He lives with his sister, Masika, and a brother, Tarik, who has become a member of an Islam extremist group, in these days right before September 11, 2001. Also in Asim's life is Sonia, his father's former mistress, whose life revolves around the films she faithfully views at the movie theatre, and Billy, an Irish local who has become Asim's first lover. Each of them suffers from some degree of loneliness, with extremely different ways of coping with it. When Asim is threatened because of his unwillingness to aid Tarik's terrorist group, Billy tries to jump to his defense, but this is something that Asim knows he must deal with in his own way, as the calendar nears the day when everything will irrevocably change. I enjoyed Zebrun's first novel, "Someone You Know," although I found it a bit dark. This is much more so, and a bit depressing for my taste. I also feel it somewhat reinforces small town America paranoia about people of Middle Eastern descent being suspected as terrorists. But the book itself is well-written, and nothing short of a masterpiece in the way it tells its story through the diverse emotions of the various characters. I'll give it four stars out of five.

Arab and Gay

Zebrun, Gary. "Only the Lonely", Alyson, 2008. Arab and Gay Amos Lassen I remember reading Gary Zebrun's first novel, "Someone You Know" and really enjoying it. When I got his new book, "Only the Lonely", I was anxious to start reading, It is set in the dying American town of Lackawanna, New York and our hero, Asim, who is gay, is getting ready to enroll at the University of Michigan. The year is 2001; Asim is anxious to get to school and start a new life. He must get everything in order before he leaves and there are two major issues that he has to deal with. The first is a new love interest--Billy, an "easygoing redhead". Their relationship has moved so well and so quickly that Asim questions it. The other problem is Sonia, a fragile, Latvian girl who was Asim's father's mistress. Her life has been taken up by watching old and classic films. Asim promised his father that he would look after her and the Bethlehem movie theater which has belonged to his family for years. Like Sonia, Asim loves old movies and the two spend time together discussing the various men who have been James Bond. Asim's brother has gone to Afghanistan to get ready for the jihad that was to follow the terrorist attack of 9/11. "Only the Lonely" begins the week before 9/11 when a package containing the skull of a Jewish boy, was sent to him by his brother, Tarik. Asim begins to understand his brother's motivations and as he thinks about them, his relationship with Sonia becomes stronger. They both use the movies to escape the reality of their lives. To make things even more complicated, a priest in Lackawanna is stabbed, a business owner is murdered and a homemade bomb appears suddenly. The storyline becomes more and more complex but Zebrun's character studies make this a pleasure to read. His writing style is quite beautiful and as the plot moves toward 9/11, we get an entirely new perspective on what happened on that terrible day.