52  Somalia – Nuruddin Farah – Maps (Score 2.85)

We read “From a crooked rib” by Farah, a number of years ago, when I gave it a score of 7.0.

Is Askar the protagonist in “Maps”? He was found, new-born, by Misra who bathed him and looked after him, and continued to do so throughout his childhood, up to about 16.

The story starts in the second person, told by an unknown narrator who could not possibly have known some of the things he or she discusses unless omniscient (which would be cheating). I found that unusual and disturbing, especially when, later in the novel the author changes persons frequently. The initial change to first person is when Askar is seven.

Something happened between Askar and Misra when he was in his teens, causing him to hate rather than love her. It’s not clear whether it’s something she had done, and had control of, or had no control of.

The use of “discrete” as a verb on page 67 in “You managed to discrete the dreamed anecdote” makes no sense, unless the author is trying to persuade us that that it is a verb.

I did not enjoy this book at all. For an author who won a literary prize, although one I have never heard of (awarded every two years by the University of Oklahoma), it was a major disappointment to me. Also, despite our group having read foreign literature every month for about 16 years, I had heard of very few of the other prize-winners.

I learned something about the long term problems between Somalia and Ethiopia, and how they largely result from the artificial division into two groups by the various colonial powers, England, France and Italy, who carved the area up between them.

Towards the end of the book I wondered where the occasional use of Italian comes from when there had been no sign of it up to that point. There was no hint, as far as I remember that Askar could speak Italian. Was this just a ploy for Askar and Hilaal to speak without Misra understanding? Why wasn’t she suspicious about that?

I have one further complaint about the misuse of English, which is not restricted to this book. On page 221 we see “In one a horseman is dropped to the floor, and the hose rides the wind, eastwards”. There is no indication that the book is a translation so I must assume that Farah, or his editor, has used this dreadfully lazy way of speaking which has become prevalent in England, and is creeping into Scottish English. What on Earth has happened to the very descriptive word “ground”?

I gave this book a score of two.