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A review by mokey4
Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah
3.0
I enjoyed reading this book, at times I enjoyed reading it a lot. I found nearly all the characters to be complex and likeable. Though it had some flaws.
I found the description of Bella's approach to her love life not very believable, and the scene with one of her lovers painted her in a rather unattractive light- I wondered if Farah was trying to point out that she could be hypocritical, though nothing else in the book pointed to that. So Bella was the weakest character for me, which is too bad since she was the main character.
There were a few scenes in this book that seemed superfluous and were not even interesting to read or well written. So it's not a tightly written or edited book.
I would only recommend this book to people who like to read a lot of African novelists. Otherwise I would be concerned that it might give a bad impression of African fiction, and that's not fair. There are a lot of better books out there. This one is fine for what it is. One thing I really appreciated was learning a bit about Somali culture, which I know little about. And the challenges gay people face in different cultures.
I found the description of Bella's approach to her love life not very believable, and the scene with one of her lovers painted her in a rather unattractive light- I wondered if Farah was trying to point out that she could be hypocritical, though nothing else in the book pointed to that. So Bella was the weakest character for me, which is too bad since she was the main character.
There were a few scenes in this book that seemed superfluous and were not even interesting to read or well written. So it's not a tightly written or edited book.
I would only recommend this book to people who like to read a lot of African novelists. Otherwise I would be concerned that it might give a bad impression of African fiction, and that's not fair. There are a lot of better books out there. This one is fine for what it is. One thing I really appreciated was learning a bit about Somali culture, which I know little about. And the challenges gay people face in different cultures.