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Bezig met laden... The Rope: A Noveldoor Kanan Makiya
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. A harrowing enlightening morally scathing novel that examines the time in Iraq between Saddam Hussein’s downfall (2003) and his execution (2006) through the lens of a nameless fictional Shiite militiaman. The reader will feel the anguish and frustration of the narrator as he moves for a state of unknowing naivety to awareness of how the sectarian violence is hindering the concept of a democratic Iraq and as his questions goes unanswered regarding his father’s disappearance in 1991 during the Saddam regime. These two storylines propel the action forward informing the reader of the many identities that a person might be and how which one is prominent in the person’s mind often is in conflict in moving towards a unified nation. The author is known for being vocal on how Iraq missed the opportunity to heal from the ouster of Saddam and how the victims became the victimizer. I was engaged for most the book but occasionally the stuffy prose, the dogmatic explanations of all of the rivalries whether religious, ethnic, military, or political overwhelmed me. When I finished reading this book I did feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Overall this is a powerful yet intimately searing account of violence, betrayals and despair of a particular time and place that unfortunately is becoming commonplace in too many other places. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
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"From the best-selling author of Republic of Fear, a gritty, unflinching, haunting novel about Iraqi failure in the wake of the 2003 American war. Told from the perspective of a Shi'ite militiaman whose participation in the execution of Saddam Hussein changes his life in ways he could not anticipate, the novel examines the birth of sectarian politics out of a legacy of betrayal and victimhood. A nameless narrator stumbles upon a corpse on the day of the fall of Saddam Hussein. Swept up in the tumultuous politics of the American occupation, he is taken on a journey that concludes with the discovery of what happened to his father who disappeared in the tyrant's Gulag in 1991. His questions about his father, like those surrounding the mysterious corpse outside his house, were ignored by his mother, and by his uncle, in whose house he was raised. But he is older now, and a fighter in his uncle's Army of the Awaited One, which is leading an insurrection against the occupation. Clues accumulate: a letter surreptitiously delivered to his mother during his father's imprisonment; stories told by his dying grandfather. Not until the last hour before the tyrant's execution, is the narrator given the final piece of the puzzle. It comes from Saddam Hussein himself. It is a story about loyalty and betrayal; victims turned victimizers; secrecy and loss. And about identity--the haste with which it is cobbled together, or undone, always at terrible cost. It is a story that will stay with readers long after they finish the final page"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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For my taste the writing trends toward overwrought, an easy mistake to make with this kind of material, except for the first scene which is very stripped down and works because of it. Another issue is that there is a lot of expository writing here--which is fair, given that Makiya's English-language version is for people not familiar with the facts on the ground--but the explaining sometimes got in the way of the storytelling and it made me wonder if the Arabic language version (the novel was published simultaneously in both languages) has less exposition.
I'm very glad to have read this novel in spite of my criticism. It's good to be reminded of what happened, to not forget the many disasters large and small that made up the Iraqi experience in these years. ( )