Roses in the Mouth of a Lion
Published: February 21, 2023
Midway through “Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion,” Razia, a Pakistani American living in Queens, New York, takes her new friend Taslima to visit a lion down the road. Staring into his dark eyes, Razia sees “boredom, longing, hunger” as the golden creature paces his alley enclosure. “I hate to break it to you,” laughs Taslima, “but that dog is not a lion.”
The metaphor of a glorious, trapped being eyeballing the world stalks and shapes this captivating novel, the first from writer Bushra Rehman. As Razia navigates the whirl of growing up and coming out across cultures and communities, her first-person narrative vibrates with humor, heartache, pathos, and honesty.
It’s summer 1985 and sixth grade looms. Razia and her best friends Saima, Lucy, and the bullying Shahnaaz roam between houses in Corona, a Pakistani enclave where money is tight and the new masjid sits shoulder-to-shoulder with an Episcopal church and a Kingdom Hall. “Our neighborhood was a hand-me-down from the Italians,” Razia describes. Tan-brick houses crowd the train tracks; unruly grapevines curl over fences where roses and hydrangeas once bloomed.
As the heat pounds, the girls fend off boredom with the slouchy aimlessness that leads to scrapes and escapes. Desperate for sweets, they search for change in the cushions of backyard sofas; they also try out Mayor Koch’s newly announced recycling program despite their parents’ proud refusal to collect cans. In both instances, low-key mayhem ensues, and the girls’ emotional responses feel both emotionally accurate and refreshingly specific.