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Average rating4
"In this novel, Farah tells the story of the orphan Askar. Before he is born, Askar has lost his father to the bloody war dividing Somalia and Ethiopia, and his mother dies giving birth to him. It is only thanks to Misra, a kindhearted woman who discovers him next to his mother's corpse and takes him into her home, that he survives. But Askar is a true child of his times, and as he matures he begins to feel suffocated by life in Misra's small village.
As a young adolescent seeking perspective on both his country and himself, Askar goes to live with his cosmopolitan aunt and uncle in the capital, Mogadiscio."--BOOK JACKET.
"It is a turbulent and dangerous time in Mogadiscio, as Somalis struggle to re-create a national identity that has been destroyed by the upheavals of modernity and the betrayals of their never-ending civil war. Each day is punctuated by renewed outbreaks of violence. Askar throws himself into radical political activity that continually challenges the murky boundaries of his own being just as each "revolution" redefines Somalia's own borders.
In the turmoil of coming events, as allegations of murder and treason are leveled at Misra, those personal and political boundaries will be challenged with a ferocity Askar had never imagined."--BOOK JACKET.
Series
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2 primary books#1 in Blood in the Sun
Blood in the Sun is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 1986 with contributions by Nuruddin Farah and Nurrudin Farah.
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One almost needs a map to make sense of this novel. It's not that the story is convoluted; it's more the way the story is told. At its core, Maps is exquisitely written with a story that is perhaps a bit too drawn out, but is interesting nonetheless. The language Farah uses to craft this story is phenomenal. There is beauty in the simple construction of many sentences, philosophy in the placing of others. If Maps is any indication, Farah is a very talented writer with a particular knack for the English language (Farah writes in English despite it not being his first language).
For a reader such as myself, I wonder if Farah isn't too clever. I have a feeling this book offered more profound statements than I was able to take away from it. Particularly, what was the reason behind all the shifts in Maps? There are shifts in time, place, reality, and, most distracting, in point-of-view. Farah heavily utilizes first, second, and third person in Maps, switching at the end of nearly every chapter. Also, there seem to be questions of gender and gender identity at the heart of the novel, but I never spent enough time on the text to decipher what message I was supposed to walk away with.
I liked Maps sufficiently, but Farah isn't the kind of author I'd run to again. Linguistically, he reminds me of a more philosophical, more poetic Aleksandar Hemon (another author who wrote in a secondary language), but I found it difficult to stay engaged in the story. Perhaps it was just me and where I was at the moment in life.
