Roses in the Mouth of a Lion, by Bushra Rehman, reviewed by Mica Corson
Bushra Rehman calls herself a vagabond poet. She has traveled the world with only her poems as company but always returns to her birthplace: Corona, Queens. Her words are imbued with cultural resonance and feminist themes that make every piece she writes stand out with its complexity. Rehman’s most recent novel Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, extends these themes in a captivating coming-of-age story set in her hometown.
Like Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Rehman’s novel explores community, family, and queer love. In it, our main character is Razia Mirza, a girl raised in a tight-knit Pakistani-American community. In the mid-eighties, Razia is a quiet, awkward child relishing her moments of freedom with her best friend, Saima. The girls do their best to be good daughters and good Muslims, often pushing away people and ideas that conflict with her family’s views, even as it begins to weigh down on them.
When a family rift means she is no longer allowed to be friends with Saima, Razia is heartbroken and finds a new confidant in Taslima. Together they rebel, if only a little, by listening to secular music, thrifting for the latest fashions, and exploring New York beyond Corona. With confidence from her new friendships, Razia attends a prestigious high school, a long train ride away from her parents’ eyes. There she meets Angela. Angela seems to be everything that Razia is not. She cuts classes, wears what she wants, and is surrounded by her group of goth butterflies. But Angela chooses to cut class with Razia. Together they go to museums and explore Manhattan, though never traveling back to Corona.
As Razia’s and Angela’s relationship blossoms into something more, girls her age in her community are getting engaged and even married. With each passing day, Razia gets more frustrated with the expectations her family and Aunties place on her to abandon her education in favor of marriage. To the women in Razia’s life, anything else makes a failure of a woman. With each conversation she has with these older women, Razia steps back, focusing on her friendships with the younger girls in her community, Taslima and Shahnaaz, who also find themselves at odds with their family traditions.
When Razia’s parents discover evidence of her relationship, she is forced to take drastic action. Her parents are forcing her to go to Pakistan, and Razia knows there will be no way back to the U.S. without a husband. Razia ultimately has to make a choice between her family and her future.
The novel, as a whole, reminds me of Ocean Vuong’s fiction novel. Besides the similar themes, it also reads in a series of vignettes: brief glimpses at Razia’s life from the summer of 1985 to the summer of 1989. Rehman shows a cultural bubble, exploring the lives taking place in this specific time and place. It is not until more than halfway through the book that one can pick out a more substantial narrative thread. Before that, and until the end of the book, it is more of a character study focusing on the lives and roles of women in Razia’s community. Rehman shows us many different ways the women live; in their adolescence, in marriages, with their children, as widows and aunties, and how they have accepted or changed their roles over time.
Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a beautiful, poetic novel about family, community, and individuality. As a coming-of-age story, it excels at demonstrating the intersection of identity and how Razia reconciles her heritage and faith with her growing love and need for free expression.
Bushra Rehman, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, Flatiron Books, 2022.