But Zeineddine is not quite ready to abandon the abundance of Dearborn's literary possibilities. Currently, he's planning a novel about a peddler based on his great grandfather, who traveled around West Virginia selling goods in the 1920s. and in the Middle East, is determined to enlarge the world of Arab American fiction. Zeineddine, who grew up around Washington D.C. They include the city's Democratic mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. He's quick to point out Dearborn's progressive Muslim leaders who outspokenly support LGBTQ rights. An irony of "Yusra" is that the title character finds community in Hamtramck, where the Muslim-majority city council recently banned Pride flags from being displayed on city property. "He feels so torn because he can't really embody Yusra among his family and friends but in Hamtramck, where he's a stranger, he can roam free."Īs in many of Zeineddine's stories, the character builds surprising, tender alliances and chooses idiosyncratic paths that exceed easy stereotypes. "He's a genderqueer butcher," Zeineddine explains, adding that his character Yasser has radically compartmentalized his life and, as an immigrant of a certain age from a socially conservative background, would likely not apply the word "genderqueer" to himself. I spot a pack of niqabis across the street, and I almost wave to them like we're all friends and haven't seen each other in months. I hear Polish folk once ran this city within a city, but now Yemenis and Bangladeshis have taken over with all the grocery stores, restaurants and mosques. My wife and son would never trek this far in Detroit, nor would my buddies. I remind myself I'm miles away from my Lebanese neighborhood in East Dearborn. Though I'm of average height, my massive chest and big biceps make me stand out. Despite my getup, I worry someone might recognize the way I walk, tilting from side to side like a juiced-up bodybuilder. I wear a niqab, leaving only a slit for my eyes, and an abaya. It's July and I'm walking down Caniff Street in Hamtramck, covered from head to tow in black. Their jobs range from a DJ to a gas station owner to a halal butcher, who we meet on a walk on a hot southeast Michigan summer day. Zeineddine's short stories are based in an Arab American community more than a hundred years old, filled with hard-dreaming immigrants who came to work in Detroit's auto plants and practice across a broad swath of faiths: Catholics, Coptics, Sunnis, Shias, Sufis, Druze and more. I kept telling my wife, we made the right decision to come here. "I had never seen that before in America. "When my wife and I drove to Dearborn to buy a house, we saw all these Arab families," he remembers. He lived in Dearborn for three years, when he taught at the local campus of the University of Michigan. Zeineddine, who's Lebanese-American, has a shyly upbeat air and the slightly bulky physique of a former high school wrestler.
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