MAPS

Rating:
Summary: A Society Much Different Than the U.S.A.
Review: I read this book based on the glowing, 5 star reviews of others. I stopped reading the book 30 pages before the end. The first half of the story held my interest well, but then it started lagging until my interest stopped altogether.

Mr. Farah does have a pleasant way with words and presents the life in Somalia well indeed. I enjoyed the differences and understand the importance of superstition in their society. Also it seems that every word spoken is analyzed by each person to the extent that all sorts of unspoken psychological challenges are experienced in a chit chat conversation.

For me this was not a reading joy.

Rating:
Summary: A Society Much Different Than the U.S.A.
Review: I read this book based on the glowing, 5 star reviews of others. I stopped reading the book 30 pages before the end. The first half of the story held my interest well, but then it started lagging until my interest stopped altogether.

Mr. Farah does have a pleasant way with words and presents the life in Somalia well indeed. I enjoyed the differences and understand the importance of superstition in their society. Also it seems that every word spoken is analyzed by each person to the extent that all sorts of unspoken psychological challenges are experienced in a chit chat conversation.

For me this was not a reading joy.

Rating:
Summary: Touching and Extremely Well-Written
Review: Nuruddin Farah is one of my favorite novelists and I think his "Blood in the Sun" trilogy (MAPS, GIFTS, SECRETS) is a masterpiece. While MAPS and SECRETS are books filled with terror and tragedy, GIFTS is quite different. It's surprisingly upbeat and it concentrates on women more than the other books do (though Farah is always good with his female characters).

The protagonist of GIFTS is a woman named Duniya who works as a nurse at the maternity hospital in Mogadishu. She meets her lover, Bosaaso, in a very comical manner when she runs out of gasoline on her way to work. Bosaaso is Somalian, but he's not a typical Somalian. American-educated and now quite wealthy, Bosaaso is the man Duniya has dreamed of meeting...literally.

Although Duniya has dreamed of her meeting with Bosaaso, she hasn't been dreaming of love and romance. She's far too modern and independent for that. (In a flashback to the village of Duniya's birth, Farah dramatizes the events that have shaped Duniya's fierce independence and also why the novel is titled GIFTS.)

Instead of terror and tragedy, GIFTS is a touching, and, at times, an almost sweet book. GIFTS contains several narrative strands and Farah develops them and brings them together wonderfully.

The theme of GIFTS revolves around the question of whether a gift brings good or ill and Farah never lets us forget this theme throughout the book.

GIFTS is a surprising book simply because it doesn't contain the terror and tragedy that overshadow so much of Farah's other work. Some people, I think, won't like GIFTS because of this. Other, however, like me, will find GIFTS a wonderful change of pace and will welcome it.

Rating:
Summary: Hmmm?
Review: This book is not exactly what I would call a joy. You start reading it and you just can't wait to finish it. I found the whole novel dry and uninteresting. It did have a brilliant beginning, but as time went on, you just get tired because the story itself never really develops in a way that would pique your interests at all. I can't say I'm a fan of Farah, but maybe I should try another of his books see.

Rating:
Summary: An Unknown Superstar
Review: This is one of the major contemporary African novels to date. Its author, the Somalian English-speaking writer Nuruddin Farah, has been in exile since 1975, because he opposed Siyad Barre's military regime. Since Barre's eviction from power and death, Farah has chosen to stay abroad. The novel was published in 1986 and comes first in a trilogy that also includes GIFTS (1992) and SECRETS (1998). It is the story of a young orphan, named Askar ("soldier" or "arm-bearer" in Somali), who, as he thinks, killed his mother at his birth. During his infancy and early childhood, he shares everything (except his dreams) with his foster-mother, a woman of Oromo origin named Misra. In Kallafo, where he stays until the age of seven, he is happy and at one with Misra. Then, because of the different political problems that threaten Ogaden (the Ethiopian area mostly inhabited by Somali speakers and claimed by Somalia as its own), he is sent to the Somalian capital, Mogadiscio, where he lives with his maternal uncle, Hilaal, and his uncle's wife, Salaado. There, he tends to become a fierce patriot, though his moods are moderated by the presence of his uncle and his aunt, two loving but demanding intellectuals. At the age of 17, Askar sees Misra again. This is during the 1977 war in the Ogaden, and Askar has been misled into thinking that Misra betrayed Somali patriots. The whole story is told by three different voices, each of which the third case, the tale is more "objective", with Askar being referred to as a classical novel character ("he"). On the whole, Askar's dilemmas and split personality make up a deeply felt and immensely rewarding work of fiction. As the end shows, there is always fiction in life, but perhaps not the way you would expect it

Rating:
Summary: This is breathtakingly Marvelous.
Review: Woow! When I read this book, I though this author is rather unique in this world. The language is rich and vivid. From there I decided to read all his work.