Liquid

A Novel

De: Mariam Rahmani

Narrado por: Mariam Rahmani

In this brilliant debut novel, a young Muslim scholar stuck in the mire of adjunct professorship in Los Angeles decides to give up her career in academia and marry rich, committing herself to 100 dates in the course of a single summer. By midsummer reality hits, taking her—and her project—to Tehran.

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

The unnamed Iranian-Indian American narrator of Liquid has always believed herself to be the smartest person in the room. And from an early age, she and her best friend—a poet-turned-marketer named Adam—have turned their noses up at other peoples’ riches. But two years after earning a PhD from UCLA, the narrator is no closer to the middle-class comfort promised to her by the prestige of her fancy, scholarship-funded education and the successes of her immigrant parents. Jokingly, Adam suggests she just "marry rich."

But our protagonist, whose PhD thesis compared Eastern and Western views of marriage in film and literature, takes the idea seriously. She makes a spreadsheet and outlines a goal: 100 dates with people of all genders and a marriage proposal in hand by the official start of the fall semester. What follows is a whirlwind summer packed with dating: martinis sans vermouth with the lazy scion of an Eastside construction empire; board games with a butch producer who owns a house in the hills and a newly dented Porsche; a Venmo request from a “socialist” trust fund babe; and an evening spent dodging the halitosis of a maxillofacial surgeon from Orange County.

Only a tragedy in Tehran and an overdue familial reckoning can alter the narrator’s increasingly manic trajectory and force her to confront the contradictions of her life in Los Angeles. And as doubts begin to creep in about her marriage project, it suddenly seems possible that the eligible prospect she’s been looking for has been beneath her nose the entire time.

For fans of Kaveh Akbar and Elif Batuman, Liquid delivers a modern tale of romance, loss, and belonging like no other. Mariam Rahmani’s gorgeous high-wire satire explodes off the page with verve and originality in this riveting spin on the classic romantic comedy.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Hirsute, heuristic, and humorous, Liquid is an electric read. From Los Angeles to Tehran, past to present, academia to the bedsheets, Rahmani navigates these journeys with undeniable verve, serious street-smarts, and a glowing charismatic cool. The smoothest, smartest book I’ve read in quite some time and the dawning of a literary force.”—Paul Beatty, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sellout

“I love this book. After hilariously tearing through the faux-profundity of so many of our cultural fixations—from Los Angeles, to academia, to rom-coms—the novel moves to Tehran, and slowly morphs into a touching examination of vulnerability, dislocation, grief, and longing. Underneath the posturing and razor-sharp wit, we find the yearning heart and hard-won intelligence of a young woman who has found herself adrift. I couldn't stop thinking about Liquid—sexy, sly, daring, and utterly brilliant. Mariam Rahmani is the most exciting new writer I've read in ages.”—Justin Torres, National Book Award-winning author of Blackouts and We the Animals

“Pleasures of nearly every variety abound in Mariam Rahmani’s astonishing Liquid, a novel whose force seeps into the bloodstream, dilating thinking on desire and ambition, of the relations that entangle and unmake us, alongside the traces of unknowability that sustain. Pages erupt with blazing intelligence, pathos, and stringent wit. How rare it is to encounter this marriage of sociological richness with a poet’s staggering feel for the capacity of language, its lush contours and bite. Traversing the streets of LA and Tehran with Rahmani at the wheel awakens sensations and appetites for which one has no name. Liquid is a potent, shimmering revelation, and Rahmani is a writer you proselytize for.”—Jenny Xie, author of the National Book Award Finalists The Rupture Tense and Eye Level

“Liquid is an absolute lifeline—Mariam Rahmani's prose expands what's possible on the page, with a novel that's loving, cutting, mournful, and hilarious. Rahmani knows LA and Tehran. Rahmani knows sex, pleasure, and pain. Rahmani knows loss, and care, and the stickiness in-between. Liquid is a dream of a book—written with heart and feeling and longing and clarity, bracingly astute, elastic, and precise—an absolute delight expanding the possibilities in American fiction.”—Bryan Washington, award-winning author of Family Meal and Memorial

"Brainy, swift, naughty, constantly surprising, and slyly political—a transgressive tour de force of cultural criticism, hidden inside a careening, and deftly comic, logic proof of love."—Heidi Julavits, author of Directions to Myself and The Vanishers

Funny,poignant, lyrical!

Sharp but beautiful writing in this compelling, genre-fluid tale of tales. Dating never seemed so undesirable!

Too predictable

Massive spoiler, the ending came out of nowhere, but at the same time it was 100% predictable.

Funny, complex page-turner!

This novel has two distinct parts, a flirty, intellectual dating romp & a profound, poetic trip to Tehran. Rahmani is a sharp cultural critic, giving us just enough entertainment to take us on a journey into a fraught, liquidy core. Compelling read!

Ending

I wanted her to end up with someone else. The ending was heteronormative. And could have been different.

Depressing and vapid

Self absorbed and pathetic. droning. No values & zero caring for humanity. Sad example of possibly too many who are coming of age without tools & heart/liver for meaningful connection. Blaming others instead of stepping beyond one’s own ego. A great example of higher education gone wrong. I stuck with it to see where the personal journey would go, but it went nowhere. Life is too short to read books like this. Since our book club chose it, so I wanted to be fair and finish it. Now that I think about it, if you’re going to write a book with this much sex in it, it should at least be sexy. This book is just sad & a bit sick, lonely judgey, shallow, unkind to all the labels assigned throughout it.