Review: It might have worked if he hadn't eaten the futon
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 6, 2013
When Mahir, a first-generation Muslim-American, transformed into a camel (a dromedary - only one hump - in case you're curious) in the apartment he shared with his agnostic girlfriend, was it a symbolic protest against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, or was it just a random thing like spontaneous combustion? Either way, it was darned inconvenient. Stepping in camel poo may have been an appropriate metaphor for the couple's relationship, but as a practical matter, it was just plain messy. How long would the girlfriend wait for Mahir to return to normal, and could the girlfriend wait?"When a Camel Breaks Your Heart" was quite an original story. The author symbolically demonstrated what a huge gulf separates the two cultures - the West and the Middle East - with a cleverly written story about a relationship that is ultimately doomed to fail.