In the Country of Men
by Hisham Matar
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hisham MatarEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-26
ISBN: 0385340435
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Book Reviews of In the Country of Men
Book Review: A Libyan family under duress
Summary: 4 Stars
In the Country of Men, set in Libya in 1979, is the story of a family torn apart by the pressures of living under a police state. It is narrated by Suleiman, the nine-year-old only child of a prosperous business man and his wife. For days at a time Suleiman is alone with his mother as the father is away on what the child is told are business trips. Only gradually does he become aware that his father, Faraj, is a member in an underground resistance movement against Muammar Gaddafi.
Much of the story centers on the feelings of Suleiman's mother, Najwa. Forced into an arranged marriage with Faraj at age fourteen, she appears to resent the fact that Faraj won't submit to Gaddafi as she was forced to submit to Faraj. When Faraj is absent, Najwa drinks heavily and confesses her fears and resentments to her confused son.
Suleiman's responses to all of this are complex, insecure and conflicted. At times clinging, at times resentful, and at times violent, he is inevitably driven apart from his parents and into a private world by the atmosphere of secrecy and deception around him. The author's portrait of a beleaguered childhood is both perceptive and convincing.
I was hoping to learn something from this novel about life in Libya to supplement the daily news reports of the historic events taking place as I was reading. Unfortunately, inasmuch as it is narrated by a nine-year-old and takes place mostly in and around Suleiman's house, the insight into Libya's political and social nature is limited. That's not a criticism of the novel--it was written for other purposes. It is a well-written and elegiac study of the ties of love being tested and twisted by multiple levels of compulsion, deception, and submission.
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