Knots – Nuruddin Farah
It was interest in a fictional picture of life in the war-ravaged, ungoverned city of Mogadishu (Mogadiscio here) that drew me to this novel; I find, however, that there is not only no glimpse of life, fictional or real, among the ruins, but there is hardly any novel here at all. This is notes for a novel, scraps of characters, vague sketches of city streets that could be anywhere, a pastiche of cheap romance or adventure fiction.
Our heroine is Cambara, a Somalian immigrant to Canada in her late twenties who, after the accidental death of her son, decides suddenly to leave her violent husband and go back to Mogadishu, where she grew up, with the vague but determined intention of retrieving some family property from an evil warlord and then doing something creative with puppets that will change things for the better (I began to suspect a satirical plot, but Nuruddin’s apparently naïve, and certainly unreliable, narration seems to take it all seriously) . Although there is fear expressed of meeting danger and terrible living conditions, nothing, absolutely nothing, happens to ruin her cosy, idiotic plans.
I won’t go on with the inane events of this silly non-novel. I can only urge you to beware of the terrible dangers of reading quotes from reviewers who do a disservice to writer and reader by praising bad work out of what I assume must be pity. What a disappointment from a writer who is promoted as a possible Nobel contender and master stylist.
My apologies to kpjayan, who asked me to review this book, for taking so long. It should have a Somalian flag, but I can't find it.
It was interest in a fictional picture of life in the war-ravaged, ungoverned city of Mogadishu (Mogadiscio here) that drew me to this novel; I find, however, that there is not only no glimpse of life, fictional or real, among the ruins, but there is hardly any novel here at all. This is notes for a novel, scraps of characters, vague sketches of city streets that could be anywhere, a pastiche of cheap romance or adventure fiction.
Our heroine is Cambara, a Somalian immigrant to Canada in her late twenties who, after the accidental death of her son, decides suddenly to leave her violent husband and go back to Mogadishu, where she grew up, with the vague but determined intention of retrieving some family property from an evil warlord and then doing something creative with puppets that will change things for the better (I began to suspect a satirical plot, but Nuruddin’s apparently naïve, and certainly unreliable, narration seems to take it all seriously) . Although there is fear expressed of meeting danger and terrible living conditions, nothing, absolutely nothing, happens to ruin her cosy, idiotic plans.
I won’t go on with the inane events of this silly non-novel. I can only urge you to beware of the terrible dangers of reading quotes from reviewers who do a disservice to writer and reader by praising bad work out of what I assume must be pity. What a disappointment from a writer who is promoted as a possible Nobel contender and master stylist.
My apologies to kpjayan, who asked me to review this book, for taking so long. It should have a Somalian flag, but I can't find it.
