Not Right For Me

In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I bought 'In the Country of Men' because I heard Hisham Matar talking on the radio and was captivated. He talked not just about this novel (without giving too much away - always a challenge!) and also about the writing process itself, eloquently expressing all the joys and difficulties that go with the territory of trying to create a story that combines drama with truth. The book won numerous awards, including being shortlisted for the Man Booker, and is based on harrowing real-life events which Hisham and his family experienced themselves during the implosion of Libya in 1979.

I was therefore surprised - and feel guilty to admit! - that I was disappointed. The story is written in the highest quality prose, of that there is no doubt, sometimes poetic, sometimes brutally factual, but there was something about the overall tone of the narrative that I found grating. I kept telling myself this was unreasonable of me, since the narrator of the story is the 9 year old boy, Suleiman, trying to understand why the world he knows is collapsing around him - so of course there was going to be a distinctive slant to the text. Yet I have read other such narratives through the eyes of youngsters - To Kill A Mockingbird springs to mind - and been gripped as opposed to irritated. There were moments when I was genuinely swept along - as little Suleiman himself is - by events and actions he does not understand, but I am afraid I could not separate myself from the annoyance sufficiently to award it more than three stars.

Perhaps it was a book that just came at me at the wrong time. Books can do that, it's part of their fascination. Just as stories can land in our laps just when we need them most. Hisham Matar is an excellent writer, he just wasn't right for me.



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