Granta.com has invited writers to reflect upon a picture of their father to coincide with the latest issue: Granta 104: Fathers. Rabih Alameddine was one of them. Here’s an excerpt from his meditation on a photo of his father taken in the Shouf Moutains in Lebanon:
He died in early 2003. I remember him angry with me on that trip, that day the picture was taken. Angry maybe because I wore shorts, and I was a man, and men don’t wear shorts. He was always angry with me, or at least concerned, until he went on antidepressants about five years before he died, after which, he wasn’t always angry with me, not always.
Fuck–those reflections are heartbreaking to me! (What would I say about my own father? OMG–I think I’d break down, and he’s STILL ALIVE). But it’s a brilliant offering from Granta. I loved Jim Shepard’s reflection too.