Always Coca-Cola

By: Alexandra Chreiteh and Michelle Hartman

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Synopsis: The story of three different young women marks the literary debut of an amazing writer from LebanonAlways Coca-Cola is the story of three very different young women attending university in Beirut: Abeer, Jana, and Yasmine. The narrator, Abeer Ward (fragrant rose, in Arabic), daughter of a conservative family, admits wryly that her name is also the name of her father's flower shop. Abeer's bedroom window is filled by a view of a Coca-Cola sign featuring the image of her sexually adventurous friend, Jana. From the novel's opening paragraph-"When my mother was pregnant with me, she had only one craving. That craving was for Coca Cola"-first-time novelist Alexandra Chreiteh asks us to see, with wonder, humor, and dismay, how inextricably confused naming and desire, identity and branding. The names-and the novel's edgy, cynical humor-might be recognizable across languages, cultures, and geographies. But Chreiteh's novel is first and foremost an exploration of a specific Lebanese milieu. Critics in Lebanon have responded in a storm, calling the novel "an electric shock" and finding that the problems of its characters reflect grave "social anomalies." Read Chreiteh and see what the storm is all about.