Hisham Matar
Hisham Matar’s In the Country of Men unfolds in the first-person voice of nine-year old Suleiman living in Gaddafi’s Libya and struggling to make sense of the events disrupting his life. Whether it is through his omnipresent, larger-than-life images or through the brutal actions of his revolutionary army and secret police, Gaddafi’s presence haunts the pages of the novel.
Suleiman witnesses the escalating horrors of living under a brutal dictatorship. The father of his best friend is arrested by the Revolutionary army, beaten and kicked before being swept away to an unknown destination. The father later appears on television “confessing” his crime of treason. He is publicly executed at a sports stadium to the resounding cheers of the crowd. Not long after, Suleiman’s father is arrested. He returns home so badly beaten and bruised that Suleiman doesn’t initially recognize him, thinking a monster is sharing his mother’s bed. Eventually, Suleiman’s parents decide to get him out of the country for his own safety. He is sent to Egypt where he completes his education and becomes a pharmacist.
Whether he is describing the burst of flavor when eating mulberries or the public execution as it plays out before his narrator’s eyes, Matar writes in vivid, immersive description. Suleiman’s observations are recorded in minute details, lending an air of verisimilitude to the writing. But there is disconnect and incongruity between his interpretation of what he sees and reality. He refers to his mother’s “illness” and her “medicine” bottle. In reality, his mother is a drunk who becomes reckless after having too much to drink and who burdens her son with stories of her forced marriage. He perceives the secret police agent stationed outside their home as a reliable friend. He compares the condemned man’s resistance to walking up the gallows to a shy woman’s resistance to being coerced on to the dance floor. His confusion is compounded by the knowledge his parents shelter him from the truth although he doesn’t know why.
Violence, fear, torture, surveillance, house searches, disappearances, gender oppression, and lies are daily occurrences in Suleiman’s life, leaving a lingering impact with far-reaching consequences. His confusion and fear manifest in bouts of cruelty and violence toward others. He betrays a friend’s confidence, physically wounds a playmate, and intentionally tries to drown the beggar, Bahloul.
Through the voice of his nine-year-old narrator, Hisham Matar captures the long-term, debilitating impact on a child growing up under an oppressive regime. Suleiman’s life, friends, and family have all been disrupted by forces he doesn’t understand. As an adult living in exile in Egypt, he feels lost, emotionally distant, empty, and alienated. When he looks back at his childhood at the end of the novel, he recognizes his personal trajectory took the shape it did due to political forces completely beyond his control.
Hisham Matar has produced a compelling first-person narrative of a child’s experience with living under a brutal dictatorship.