About this title: In 1979 Libya, nine-year-old Suleiman endures his mother's increasingly disturbing bedside stories full of old family bitterness. His father is away on business (again), and Suleiman is soon caught up in a world he cannot hope to understand in this novel that offers a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public ...
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Description: Fine. New books small to none shelf wear An appparently unread copy in perfect condition. Dust cover is intact pages are clean and not marked by notes or folds of any kind. This is suitable for presenting as a gift. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"I suffer an absence, an ever-present absence, like an orphan not entirely certain of what he has missed or gained through his unchosen loss. I am both repulsed and surprised, for example, by my exaggerated sentiment when parting with people I am not intimate with, promising impossible reunions. Egypt has not replaced Libya. Instead, there is this void, this emptiness I am trying to get at like someone frightened of the dark, searching for a match to strike. I see it in others, this emptiness. My expression shifts constantly, like that of the prostitute who waits in your car while you run across a busy road to buy a new pack of cigarettes for the night. When you walk back, ripping the cellophane, before she has time to see you, you catch sight of her, temporarily settled in another role as a sister or a wife or a friend. How readily and thinly we procure these fictional selves, deceiving the world ans what we might have become if only we hadn't got in the way, of only we had waited to see what might have become of us.""
"This story takes place in Libya just after Qadaffi's revolution, and it's told in the voice of a nine-year-old boy whose father is a dissedent. I found this a very interesting but painful read. When the boy's father disappears and his best friend is arrested, everything stable in his life degenerates into chaos, and he copes with it badly. Some of the decisions he makes are hard to understand, but maybe his own betrayals of loved ones are just a miniature of the political oppression of the time. By the end of the story, he has grown up, but still has much to forgive himself for."
"The child narrator's point of view is only the tip of the iceberg. It's as if the boy's view of the world is warped by the surface of the water. Actually, Suleiman isn't a particularly likeable character. On the contrary, the reader is discouraged from identifying with the first person narrator, for he recounts episodes of his boyhood in which he indulges in inexplicable cruel behavior which contrasts sharply with the boy's childish innocence in the face of evil and deceit.
While the book's language is pretty much straightforward and uncomplicated, to the point that at first I thought this wasn't going to be worth my while, as I read on, became engrossed by the subversive elements of the plot, and the constant interplay of the two temporal pasts of the narrative (Najwa-the mother's past vs. Suleiman-the boy's past).
* * * PLENTY OF SPOILERS AHEAD * * *
In the Country of Men has been criticized by Arab commentators for being politically vague, for depicting the opposition to the Libyan regime as a slipshod endeavor, in effect caricaturing the resistance movement. IMO this is what gives the book its humanity and poignancy. The primary critique of contemporary Arab society is that this country of 'men' no longer operates according to 'manly' codes of conduct. All sense of justice, faith, honor, respect seems to have decayed. This can be seen in the juxtaposition between the strict moral codes women must still adhere to, a seemingly anachronistic tradition that persists in a society whose ruling regime loudly proclaims a total break with the past, the ushering in of the 'modern', the 'revolutionary', etc. We observe the most devout adherents of The Guide are men who unashamedly forego ideological principles when it is convenient for themselves or for their superiors: Um Masood can be bribed by a cake topped with strawberries; the secret police try to score with Suleiman's mother in exchange for overlooking the 'shame' of her drinking binges. And despite all the macho talk of capturing the 'traitors', the pistol-toting Sharief promptly abandons his idealistic mission when the 'mighty hand' decides to spare Suleiman's father. However, the opposition isn't any better. Najwa's brother, despite an American wife and a comfortable life abroad, reverts to the old ways when it comes to dealing with the matter of the family's honour being compromised by the young girl. Faraj (Suleiman's father), who is apparently one of the main financial benefactors of the opposition, has married an underage girl he has never seen before and even went so far as to deflower her as she lay unconscious with fear on her wedding night in accordance with tradition. Who better, then, to understand the futility of the 'resistance' than Najwa, (Suleiman's mother). As a woman, as a victim of patriarchal status quo, she is aware that her husband's struggle with the totalitarian regime is a futile battle. The system cannot be overcome when the men fighting it are themselves oppressors. And this is what In the Country of Men illustrates, by intertwining the two narratives: the subjugation of Najwa to the rule of men, and the subjugation of Faraj to the rule of the regime. Najwa's adolescent 'crime' is that she was found talking to a boy in a public café. The 'High Council' of male family elders acted with the 'efficiency rivaling that of a German factory' in meting out the punishment after a closed 'trial' in which she is not allowed to come to her own defense. Her sentence begins with incarceration, beatings, a forced marriage, denial of access to books, and concludes with the rape on her wedding night. She remembers: "When I got home every light in my life was put out." Years later, her husband's fate echoes her own oppression. At the moment of Faraj's arrest she immediately understands the enormity of his predicament: the possibility of being placed 'behind the sun for ever'. His capture by the Revolutionary Committee men is followed by events paralleling her own submission: a mock trial, incarceration, beatings, forced confession, forced pledge of loyalty, deprived of his books, release. The ironic twist in this role reversal is that it is the woman who now holds the trump card --> She makes the morally superior choice to save him at all costs whereas no man or woman (not even her own mother) was willing to rescue/protect her. In the country of men, it is the woman who saves the day, overcoming the 'cowardly' stance of the Scheherazades past and present - idealists/fantasists who choose slavery over risking all for freedom. Najwa negotiates with her neighbor Ustath Jafer the until then much feared highranking Mokhabarat official and pledges obedience to the regime on behalf of her husband, as she had once given her own wedding pledge to him in order to 'save' her family's honor: 'A word had been given and word had been received, men's words that could never be taken back or exchanged.' Finally, I want to point out the crowning ironic symbol: The white handkerchief, a testament of Najwa's virgin 'honor' upon her bridal bed, becomes the white sheet on the mirror protecting the 'violated' husband from his own reflected image upon his return home a badly bruised and broken man."
"I finished this book in one day and that rarely, rarely happens. I cannot say I enjoyed the book--at least not in the sense that it was a pleasurable read. The story is sad, frustrating, complex, and I absolutely could not put the book down. Hisham Matar writes poetically about very difficult times in Libya during the rule of Quaddafi. The story is told from a 9-year-old boy's perspective. There is deceit, torture, cruelty, and bravery amongst the characters. I cannot stress how much I recommend reading this."
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