In the Country of Men
by Hisham Matar
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hisham MatarEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); 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 Tedious Novel with an unlikable narrator
Summary: 1 Stars
When I purchased the book, I was quite interested in the setting and eager to read it because a good friend of mine had been living in Libya when Qaddafi staged his coup; my friend barely escaped the country with his life.
But what a disappointment the book turned out to be.
My main problem with the novel was that the narrative was told from the perspective of a supremely spoiled and obnoxious child who misinterprets nearly every event that occurs. Because I disliked the narrator so much, I found myself detached from the events and characters, and ultimately uninterested in the outcome. Towards the end of the book, I even found myself hoping the state security police would abduct this petulant child and torture him. Out of stubbornness I finished the book, but it took a long time.
Summary of In the Country of Men
Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman's days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father's constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother's increasingly disturbing bedside stories full of old family bitterness. And then one day Suleiman sees his father across the square of a busy marketplace, his face wrapped in a pair of dark sunglasses. Wasn't he supposed to be away on business yet again? Why is he going into that strange building with the green shutters? Why did he lie?Suleiman is soon caught up in a world he cannot hope to understand-where the sound of the telephone ringing becomes a portent of grave danger; where his mother frantically burns his father's cherished books; where a stranger full of sinister questions sits outside in a parked car all day; where his best friend's father can disappear overnight, next to be seen publicly interrogated on state television.
In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public nightmare. But above all, it is a debut of rare insight and literary grace.
From the Hardcover edition.
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