BOTM - Dec 2019 - Season of Migration to the North by Salih

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Please share thought on the book or author here.

[Gail]

I read this book last year and I found it to be quite a subtly impactful book. The plot isn’t all that much but the lines between right and wrong, between Europe and Africa, between hope and despair are well drawn. The book articulate’s a man’s need for sexual control up against the post colonial lack of control in all situations. It was not a comfortable read for me and it left me disturbed, but I thought the read was worth it.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Gail wrote: "I read this book last year and I found it to be quite a subtly impactful book. The plot isn’t all that much but the lines between right and wrong, between Europe and Africa, between hope and despai..."

I see you gave it 5 stars. I am hopeful that I will agree!

[John Dishwasher]

This book is really something. I haven’t given more than four stars to a book all year long and I give this one 4.5. Salih is quite a storyteller and the book has a wonderful complexity that’s very easy to follow. On the whole, I read it as an allegory. (view spoiler)[ I think Salih is talking about humans being awakened from the sort of idyllic simplicity we’re born with (the Sudanese village) to the powerfully dangerous potentials of our human faculties (Mustafa exercises those powers with cruelty and destruction in England). Later her returns to the Sudanese village and subtly ‘infects’ it (through the culture-shattering independence and non-cooperation of his wife.) But later both Mustafa and the narrator find a kind of transcendence that allows them to not be controlled by those human powers, but to act autonomously of them. I think Salih is describing a process we all go through individually, and maybe also describing what a colonized society goes through when it grapples with the new ‘tools’ forced on them by the West. I describe my interpretation more fully in my review. (hide spoiler)] This was a wonderful read. I’ve always gotten so much out of the Heinemann African Writer Series.

[Diane]

I read this book back in 2016. Here is my review.

What a fascinating book, probably the best 139 pages I have ever read. Set in Sudan, the narrator returns from studying abroad in Europe. Upon returning to his home town he meets a stranger, Mustafa Sa'eed, who turns his life upside down. I really enjoyed reading about Mustafa's life journey. I did not find the story predictable in fact when I thought I figured it out something different would happen. The story for me was 4 stars but when I think of all the character development that occurred in such a short book I added a star.

[Diane]

John.Dishwasher wrote: "This book is really something. I haven’t given more than four stars to a book all year long and I give this one 4.5. Salih is quite a storyteller and the book has a wonderful complexity that’s very..."

Glad that you enjoyed the book.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Diane wrote: "I read this book back in 2016. Here is my review.

What a fascinating book, probably the best 139 pages I have ever read. Set in Sudan, the narrator returns from studying abroad in Europe. Upon ret..."

I am still waiting...