GLR May-June 2026

H ANK T ROUT THE PINK SCAR How Nazi Persecu ti on Shaped the Struggle for LGBTQ +Rights Thomas R. Dunn Penn State University Press, 220 pages. $24.99 A BOOK TITLED The Pink Scar: How Nazi Persecu tion Shaped the Struggle for LGBTQ +Rights might un derstandably stir trepidation in a prospective reader. Before reading the book, I was warned that it might be ex tremely depressing. Did I really need to read another book full of excruciating detail on how the Nazis censored, surveilled, medically experimented upon, tortured, and murdered queer people both inside and outside the concentration camps? The trepidation was unnecessary. In The Pink Scar ,Thomas R. Dunn, associate professor of communication studies at Col orado State University, eschews sensationalism for solid schol arship on how images and memories of the Nazi persecution informed the architects of LGBT liberation. The book explores this influence from as early as 1934 up to the AIDS crisis of the late 20th century. In 1931, with the Nazis gathering their power, Hitler asked Ernst Röhm to lead the Sturmabteilung (SA), the large, work ing-class Nazi paramilitary wing known for deadly street vio lence, despite knowing that Röhm was homosexual. In the U.S., cision to release him reveals her, once again, as a tireless de fender of her self-effacing son. With characteristic reserve, Raja summarizes the effect of this excruciating experience in direct address to the reader: “My life was never the same, but you knew that, right?” The writer next moves to the Beirut port explosion of 2020, the third Lebanese calamity featured. Alameddine illustrates the visceral impact of this event, in which more than 200 people were killed and 300,000 displaced, by depicting self-contained Raja breaking into sobs on the streets that he had naively en tered to try to clean up. The writer strikes a chord here that may echo in the sensibilities of those who have experienced local or national trauma. Alameddine’s dry, playful attitude toward his two main char acters and the universe they inhabit propels readers through the story’s sometimes dramatic, sometimes mundane events. While signs of shared national trauma and genuine personal pain appear periodically, the wry tenor of the novel effectively conveys Zalfa’s take-charge resilience and the combative yet dedicated bond that she and her son share. This lighthearted overlay guides readers easily through the book’s hidden complexities . If some characters need development, certain events strain credulity, or novelistic exaggerations occur, it’s all in good fun or, as the title assures us, “true true.” With this, his seventh novel, Rabih Alameddine’s seriocomic vision beguiles us once again. _________________________________________________________________ Anne Charles co-hosts the cable-access show All Things LGBTQ . Never Again

A NNE C HARLES He Remembers Mama THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine Grove Press. 336 pages, $28. W ITH A WINK and a nod, the title of Rabih Alamed dine’s latest novel ushers us into the world of its self deprecating protagonist, his neighbors in Beirut, and his family, particularly his larger-than-life, pot-smoking mother Zalfa. The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) begins in 2023 when Zalfa is 85, circles back in time through three Lebanese historical upheavals, and returns to 2023 in its closing pages. Though Alameddine later reports on Raja’s childhood with his parents and bullying brother and his early recognition of his homosexuality, the opening scene of the book presents 63-year-old Raja verbally sparring with Zalfa as he dyes her hair. As the title suggests, Raja’s most frequent self-descriptor is “gullible.” Although he speaks of himself at appropriate inter vals as “Raja the Imbecile,” “Raja the Worthy,” “Raja the Ful minant,” or “Raja the Dimwit,” “gullible” is the signifier that sticks. He swiftly underscores the tongue-in-cheek repetition of the novel’s title by announcing early on: “I begin this story with the lie.” Later in an account of his relationship with a tenant, Raja wryly confesses to the reader: “In order for you to be ap prised of all the facts, I’m going to admit that I too lied.” The chaotic setting of Lebanon, where Alameddine grew up, provides a source of recurrent hardship, and several of the novel’s principal sections center on this country’s catastrophic national upheavals. These disasters reveal Zalfa’s irrepressible nature and toughminded grit. Lebanon’s 2019 banking collapse, for example, gives Alameddine an occasion to illustrate Zalfa’s outsize presence. After learning that the savings of every aver age Lebanese citizen has disappeared, Zalfa storms down to the bank, Raja in tow, demanding her money. She harangues the harried bank manager’s secretary, until she, unlike the throngs of outraged complainants, secures a secret cash payment. Soon afterward, Raja, a high school philosophy teacher, learns from his students that his 81-year-old mother has joined them regu larly at anti-government demonstrations, where she carries signs with messages like “This Grandmother Wants All the Brothers of Whores in Jail.” Of the banking collapse, Raja pointedly as serts: “Lebanon is a nation of thieves; what the eye sees the hand filches.” But as this incident clarifies, if she or those close to her are affected, Zalfa won’t take this corruption lying down. Raja’s endurance is tested in the most exigent of circum stances when at fifteen he is held captive for several months at the outset of the Lebanese Civil War. While his homosexuality and participation in drag have been established early in the nar rative, in this section the nuances of sexual and emotional de pendency intersect with particular power. That Zalfa’s scrappy and relentless agitation may have influenced Raja’s captors’ de

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