Cait’s Comments (group member since Jan 31, 2017)

Cait’s comments from the Around the World in 80 Books group.

The book we're reading discusses events at the very beginning of the ongoing war in Syria - does anyone have any particularly good resources for a basic grounding in Syria in general or the ongoing conflict there in particular?

A brief search got me Syria's Civil War Explained from Al Jazeera, which may or may not be biased but does have a basic breakdown.

Similarly, there is a pretty recent BBC synopsis Why is there a war in Syria? - again, hard to figure out how either of these are slanted when there are so many countries, sects, and groups with a stake in Syria, but the facts mostly agree from what I saw.

There is also this What's happening in Syria? synopsis from the BBC that is geared towards children... so the tone/vocab is obviously not what we need, but it does break down events - mostly I was just intrigued by this because do any American news outlets provide news coverage like this for kids? It even had a link about what to do when the news upsets you, which I thought was awesome.

Thus far, every part. I'm still in the very beginning of the book, but it's interesting to read about how the sectarianism is being used by the government... existing strife being utilized for current issues. It's also interesting because I just finished Americanah, in which Adichie says that the main forms of tribalism in America are class, race, and ideology, i.e. conservative vs. liberal, and you can see in the past few years how yes, those are tribalism issues that have been stirred up by others for their own ends, and how that is both like and not at all like tribalism and sectarian issues from other cultures. Also I keep thinking about how the author is both being very brave doing what she is doing as a woman, when there are never any women anywhere she is going, but also using her privilege as a woman to do those very things... undoubtedly unsafe to be a woman in a riot (especially since the government is targeting her), but I can't imagine a man would be able to pretend complete ignorance the way she is able to and be as successful about disarming people that way.

So, not hooked immediately thus far. Probably not fair that I started this while still reading Americanah, which did hook me immediately. I'm finding the diary style interesting, but too easy to put down after I finish a 'day' - that and that fact that it's obviously super depressing. How is everyone else doing?

I grew up book-buying instead of book-borrowing (bad librarian) - partially because my family has a genetic predisposition to not return things on time and partly because I'm a big re-reader and a big collector.

I try to avoid bookstores because I'll end buying thirty books at a time, but I love Magers & Quinn and Moonpalace, as you know. I've also been meaning to try out Subtext, in St. Paul, and Open Book in Minneapolis. Also did you know that the MN Historical Society has its own press, which you can order from online or pick up there? It's got some cool, unique books for local history - I really enjoyed Days of Rondo which I got from there.

I mostly use bookstores for serendipitous finds though, if I have a specific book in mind I'll buy it on Amazon - either for Kindle or a physical copy - because then I don't come away with more than I need. Also I've been getting really into audiobooks through Audible, especially when I can link them to a Kindle and read or listen as the mood strikes.

Since the purpose of this book club is reading around the world and spending time in other’s shoes, what parts of this story make you more alert to cultural, racial, religious differences, etc.? Is this novel changing your perspective? If so, how?

I thought we could try some ongoing discussion as we read. What is your initial reaction to the book? Did it hook you immediately, or take some time to get into?

I'll start: I'm a medical librarian w/ a physics undergrad, and an unrepentant obsession with fantasy and some sci-fi. For the past couple of years I've been trying to drastically increase the authors of color that I read, with some success, which has also meant that I've been increasing the fiction and non-fiction I've been reading. My to-be-read list (and to-be-read pile) is ridiculously huge, which I try to frame as a "how wonderful I'll never run out of things to read!" problem.

So it occurs to me (sort of late) that it might be nice for us to get to know one another - I know most of you, but you don't all know each other! We can use this space to introduce ourselves, and generally discuss questions, concerns, or suggestions for the book club!

Yeah who knows where this comment goes, I meant to address it earlier, because I agree that the women aren't true agents in the book... but I did spend quite a bit time thinking about them. Maybe just because I'm so used to investing more into less developed woman characters because that's so often all we get? But also maybe because Farah clearly tries to portray Loyaan/Soyaan as more forward thinking in this book, they are clearly meant to be more egalitarian, as demonstrated by the difference from their father, and how they treat Ladan, their women friends, and Margaritta... and yet despite that Farah also portrays Loyaan's shortcomings in this area (like at the Broom Ceremony). Farah clearly wants us to think about women's roles, but you're right that he doesn't give the actual women an opportunity to show this, just how Loyaan, Soyaan, and Keynaan react to those women differently.

Oh I think the dictatorship is definitely directly related to that colonialism. I am woefully ignorant about it, but I do know that colonialism creates a lot of instability during its tenure and after it's withdrawn - resources have often been wiped out by the colonizing country, the economy is frail, there's still going to be the same "ruling class" hanging around, with gads of money and influence (and it's not as though the people who ruled colonies were there because they were shining stars of anti-corruption). And that's not even considering the less easy to pinpoint parts - like the effect of teaching entire generations that they have "no history."

Becki, thanks for resolving this, because once Claire brought it up I was actually bothered by it! Seriously tried to do cuisine research in case it was that literal :) You're reading the second book, Sardines, right? Have you figured out the deal with that title?

Yeah that was definitely looming, particularly the refrain of "is this not Somalia?" etc. Other things that stood out to me: the random line of "the prisons were mostly full and more were being built" which rang sickeningly true, and also the entire horrible idea of being *deported from your home,* which is both what happened to Farah when he was exiled himself and what is happening to so many people all over the United States.

It might have been a better question to ask which parts of the dictatorship didn't resonate with current politics though, because it kind of felt like everything did.

Re: Qumman, Beydan, & Margaritta

The Beydan/Qumman relationship is interesting, and it makes total sense that Qumman's objection would be about her own loss of agency, of not being able to choose when she left her husband. First of all, because there is a culture shift here where marriage is less about romantic love and more about business dealings, and that's *all* about agency, almost none of which belongs to the woman. That's evidenced pretty clearly with the Keynaan/Beydan marriage: Beydan didn't steal Qumman's husband, the marriage is a twisted business transaction, after Keynaan's group, whom he is the scapegoat for, is responsible for Beydan's first husband's death. Is it Beydan's fault? No. But at the same time, who else is Qumman supposed to be mad at, if not Beydan? Keynaan, who regularly beat her and her children? The General, who set the whole thing in motion? Neither are safe options.

I think it's the same business contract mentality that partly informs how Qumman feels about Margaritta. Yeah, it might seem heartless that she's more worried about Soyaan's contributions towards her trip to the Mecca than Soyaan's son Marco, but she has so little agency, economic or other wise, that how else can she retain any power or independence?

I agree with the yes, but complicated. But not a yes/no complicated, but a yes/yes complicated.

Keynaan's growing complications are obviously kind of a point in the book - so many times Loyaan/Soyaan ask 'can there ever be any understanding?' etc., and then towards the end Loyaan and Keynaan are able to have a real conversation. Personally, I went from thoroughly hating him as a misogynist jack-ass, to acknowledging him as a misogynist jack-ass who is also part of a country with very recent racist colonizing roots. In one of the other threads I also talked about a passage that stood out, where Loyaan and Soyaan are told at school that they have "no history" in their country, because there are no buildings, no (white) heroes, etc. And at the beginning of that passage, Keynaan says "I don't want you to believe everything these whites teach you. I want you to simply get some kind of certificate so that you can get jobs as clerks with the government." (p. 143). Here he is early on, trying to keep his family alive in a crap situation. In in that context, I can understand some of Keynaan's behavior. And in the same context, I can appreciate how Keynaan's struggle to keep his family alive whatever means necessary / his own "Grand Patriarch"y is kind of the ultimate use of the father/family to power the regime. Participating in the authoritarian, patriarchal regime both gives him personal power that he craves throughout the book, and is an example of how patriarchy (and this authoritarian regime example of it) depends on everybody having their minimal rights to defend, and their reasons to prop up a system that doesn't serve them. Keynaan asks multiple times why Soyaan or Loyaan has to be the one sticking his neck out, because Keynaan has that something to lose - his family as well as himself. So, yes/yes because him violating other people's rights intersects with his personal pleasure (as evidenced by his behavior before he was kicked out of the government) and his fear of losing what he and his family have (lives, and livelihoods). /End Patriarchy rant.

This was a tough part of the book for me! The half-prose half-poetry is not my style. However: after a bit I started rereading the beginning sections after I had finished the chapter, using them as bookends, and I actually thought that it was a good tool to get me thinking about what the core of the chapter had been. Even with that, I didn't understand the beginning ones as well as the later ones - easier to tell what was going on as the pace in the book picked up. What did you think of them?

Claire wrote: "The younger generation has foreign influence -- both Loyaan and Soyaan have studied abroad, and Margaritta is half Italian. As a result they have more modern ideas about gender roles and they esche..."

Re: Foreign influence. There was sooooooo much of that woven throughout. I feel like I would need to do research to understand even half of what Farah intended. In the beginning it's all positive, broader world (all that stuff with the globe, etc), but then we see that passage later (p 143) where the twins are saying "how could they make [Keynaan] understand that at school they were told they had no history?" and it recontextualizes everything with that history of colonialism - stuff that obviously I should have kept in mind the whole time, but I was so stuck on heartily disliking Keynaan that I ended up liking things he hated just because I was contrary.

Claire wrote: "Ladan is an interesting exception to this though. She is part of the younger generation, yet it seems she has not left Somalia. She is depicted as very emotional, and more connected to her mother Q..."

Ladan definitely serves as something of bridge between generations... which makes sense, when connected to the entire theme of how women function within the entire story. I thought it was really interesting the way she highlighted the differences between her brothers and her father - I noted down the quote where Farah says "They [the twins] fed her small brain on figures round, complete, open-ended... She was like them - except she was a girl" (p 117). So on the one hand, new generation, certainly a different attitude toward women. But on the other hand, they also expect their sister to keep to her own gender role - the way they keep information from her, how irritated Loyaan is at her (and all the other women's) attempts to protect him, etc. So to me, Ladan is kept in this sort of 1.5 generation almost exclusively because of her gender. Even when the brothers are ok with other less traditional women, like Margaritta, it seems clear that they don't expect / support that kind of behavior from their sister.

Claire wrote: "Another question which possibly emphasizes some differences rather than similarities: why do the characters always refer to their leader as the "General" rather than using his real name? It seems t..."

I was wondering about that too. As I say in one of the other threads, I'm not great at symbolism unless it whacks me over the head, but I felt as though it was related to the "There is no General but our General" theme, and also that fleeting "Oh god, not another coup" fear that Loyaan has when Ladan wakes him up at one point. By not stressing the name, it makes it seem more like the General is eternal, instead of one of a series of men?

EDIT: The General at that time (Barre) really did refer to himself by title - “Victorious Leader”, etc. I haven't gone through this whole article (http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/cult...) but it seems like it could have some helpful info for me understanding what's going on.

My favorite summation of the book:

[Minister] "How are things generally?”
[Loyaan] “Confusing." (p. 190)

I’m not that great at symbolism, but there was some pretty clear foreshadowing regarding Beydan, her dream, her death, and the name of her child. How did you feel about Beydan and her plot line? Why do you think Farah wove her throughout the story in the way that he did?