Finding a Canadian Refuge

Kamal Al-Solaylee’s Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes is a touching account of a gay man’s journey to self-awareness from his childhood in Aden and Beirut, through his coming of age in Egypt and England, to his eventual discovery of happiness in Canada. There is an almost fairytale quality to the telling—ugly duckling to swan—as the awkward child grows up to find fulfillment in love and a new home where he can be accepted for who he is and how he feels. The story gains in poignancy against the backdrop of a Middle East beset by conflict, economic decline and the rise of political Islam.

If autobiography is an orphan form that begins with a sense of being alone, then that sense is certainly present here, as are varying degrees of guilt, shame and exuberance. In prose that is commendably clear, we are introduced to the Al-Solaylee family—father, mother and eleven children. We are first told about mother: an illiterate shepherdess, married at 14, who soon...