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A review by alexisreading23
My Friends: A Novel by Hisham Matar
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Three young Libyan men live in political exile. Mustafa and Khaled attend a protest outside the Libyan Embassy and their lives are altered irrevocably when government officials open fire on the crowd. Since this pivotal moment, the two friends and their friend Hosam, a writer, conduct shared lives that revolve continuously around the call of the homeland and for their own various reasons, their inability to answer its call.
This was such a wonderful beginning to my reading month and I am so very glad that it has introduced me to Hisham Matar's writing as I will most definitely be looking into reading more of his work. I found this incredibly moving and the sympathetic portrayal of the young men's situation was so delicately and deeply explored. The profound nostalgia and longing for Libya, its sea and mountains, its streets, food, language, their families - this all permeated the entire novel so intensely and painted such a beautiful and sympathetic portrayal of a life lived away from home, home in every sense of the word.
As a literature student myself, there was never any possibility that Khaled wouldn't endear himself to me immediately through his love of literature and his deep appreciation for the written (and spoken!) word. When Khaled and Hosam undertook to visit all the places that their favourite writers had lived merely to look at them from the outside, I knew that I was reading the words of someone that had felt the same as I in some way. Of course, the novel's more pressing focus was on the political anxieties of the men and the difficult balance between yearning for a connection and belonging to Libya, and the knowledge that much must be concealed to preserve the safety of their remaining family. I was moved by the thought of the unbearable loneliness Khaled endured in his attempts to conceal the truth from them.
The beating heart of the novel is the friendship that connects the three men despite their differences and the moving paths they all choose to take. Of course, the friendship between Rana and Khaled also is well worth mentioning. Friendship becomes the tie that binds these separate figures, connecting them in their orbit around the distant gravitational force of Libya. I admired Matar's portrayal of the kind of friendship that holds up lives and gives sense to a world that is too difficult to navigate alone, especially considering the added strain of political turmoil in a foreign land, with foreign language and people.
I really loved this novel and am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to read it in advance!
This was such a wonderful beginning to my reading month and I am so very glad that it has introduced me to Hisham Matar's writing as I will most definitely be looking into reading more of his work. I found this incredibly moving and the sympathetic portrayal of the young men's situation was so delicately and deeply explored. The profound nostalgia and longing for Libya, its sea and mountains, its streets, food, language, their families - this all permeated the entire novel so intensely and painted such a beautiful and sympathetic portrayal of a life lived away from home, home in every sense of the word.
As a literature student myself, there was never any possibility that Khaled wouldn't endear himself to me immediately through his love of literature and his deep appreciation for the written (and spoken!) word. When Khaled and Hosam undertook to visit all the places that their favourite writers had lived merely to look at them from the outside, I knew that I was reading the words of someone that had felt the same as I in some way. Of course, the novel's more pressing focus was on the political anxieties of the men and the difficult balance between yearning for a connection and belonging to Libya, and the knowledge that much must be concealed to preserve the safety of their remaining family. I was moved by the thought of the unbearable loneliness Khaled endured in his attempts to conceal the truth from them.
The beating heart of the novel is the friendship that connects the three men despite their differences and the moving paths they all choose to take. Of course, the friendship between Rana and Khaled also is well worth mentioning. Friendship becomes the tie that binds these separate figures, connecting them in their orbit around the distant gravitational force of Libya. I admired Matar's portrayal of the kind of friendship that holds up lives and gives sense to a world that is too difficult to navigate alone, especially considering the added strain of political turmoil in a foreign land, with foreign language and people.
I really loved this novel and am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to read it in advance!