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What Members Thought
Some authors make a political statement with their stories, powerful because of the emotional connections we make as readers to the circumstances. In this case, and despite the multiple awards and award nominations, I felt the story was a thin veil over circumstances that the author wanted to talk about. The nine year old makes confusing decisions, isn't afraid when a normal child would be, leading to destruction around him. He felt emotionally distant. At the same time, the author ends up not g
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I liked this overall--with a mild kept-reading-to-the-end liking, but I couldn't love it as I wanted to. The reason being I think just about the most unlikable child protagonist I've encountered in literature. The story is set in Qaddafi's Libya in 1979, and I did love how Matar rendered the setting--everything from the political to the personal to the foods and literature consumed. I came out of the book feeling I had a good sense what it was like growing up in that place and time. The writing
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Review to follow. A disturbing look at the Libya of the late 1970s through a child's eyes.
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Occasional nice touches, but too simplistic overall. The child narrator goes from "believably naive" to "annoyingly oblivious".
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Oct 31, 2010
Stujallen allen
marked it as to-read
Feb 22, 2011
Heather (DeathByBook)
marked it as to-read
Sep 19, 2011
Stephanie
marked it as to-read
Oct 19, 2011
KayG
marked it as to-read
Jan 31, 2012
Jody Curtis
marked it as to-read
Aug 07, 2012
Ching-In
marked it as to-read
Sep 15, 2012
Friederike Knabe
marked it as own-to-read
Mar 19, 2013
Angela
marked it as to-read
Oct 28, 2018
Karawan
marked it as to-read
Jan 10, 2020
Yrinsyde
rated it
it was ok
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review of another edition
Shelves:
public-library,
african-journey
Aug 31, 2019
Mary
marked it as to-read
