Osama Van Halen - Softcover

Knight, Michael Muhammad

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1593762429 ISBN 13: 9781593762421

Publisher: Catapult, 2009

Synopsis

Amazing Ayyub, an Iranian Shi'ite skinhead, and Rabeya, a burqa-wearing punk, have kidnapped Matt Damon and are holding him hostage. They demand that Hollywood depict Muslims in a positive light just one movie where we're not these two-dimensional al Qaeda stereotypes.” But Damon's concerned they're playing into that same terrorist paradigm, thereby furthering the neoconservative perception of Islam.

Meanwhile, Ayyub embarks on a mission to rid the taqwacore scene of a Muslim pop-punk band called Shah 79. Along the way, he makes himself invisible, escapes punk-eating zombies in a mosque off the desert highway, and runs into some psychobilly jinns. Things turn existential when Ayyub finds himself face-to-face with his creator no, not Allah, but the author.

This riotous journey of enlightenment reads like a religious service for teenagers on Halloween. But it isn't all raucous fun; written into his own novel, the author finds he is at the mercy of his creation.

About this title

About the Author:

Cris Mazza is the author of a dozen books of fiction, including the critically acclaimed Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?, and the PEN Nelson Algren Award winning How to Leave a Country. She also has a collection of personal essays, Indigenous: Growing Up Californian. In 1995 Mazza and a co-editor put together the original Chick-Lit: Postfeminist Fiction anthology, not to be confused with recent banal romances marketed under the same name. Among her other titles are Homeland, Disability, Former Virgin, Dog People and Your Name Here: ___, and among her other awards are an NEA Fellowship and three Illinois Arts Council literary awards. A native of Southern California, Mazza grew up in San Diego County. Currently she lives 50 miles west of Chicago. She is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

From Publishers Weekly:

Knight (The Taqwacores) goes meta in this very self-involved satirical blitz, throwing characters from previous books into a psycho showdown with the author. The less than cohesive central narrative follows Iranian Shiite skinhead Amazing Ayyub—after he and burka-wearing punker Rabeya kidnap Matt Damon in a bid to end Hollywood's puerile depiction of Muslims—on a cross-country journey to assassinate a sellout Muslim punk band. As Amazing Ayyub travels and dodges zombies and psychobilly jinns, first-person recollections by the author document his attending Islamic academic conferences and drolly conversing about Sufism, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his inability to create well-rounded female characters. The obligatory (and somewhat disappointing) final showdown between Knight and his perennially pissed-off creations hints that Knight's interest remains with the antic adventures of the characters he clearly adores, rather than in, say, any traditional notions of plot. Knight's potential is evident on nearly every page, but the in-jokes and frequent self-references will limit this book's appeal to readers well versed in things taqwacore. (July)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Catapult
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1593762429
• ISBN 13: 9781593762421
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212