World Lit Wednesday: FROM A CROOKED RIB by Nuruddin Farah

ISBN: 9780141187174 [UK]

Continent: Africa

Country: Somalia

Title: From a Crooked Rib

Author: Naruddin Farah

First published in: 1970

"God created Woman from a crooked rib; and any one who trieth to staighten it, breaketh it." (Somali traditional proverb, quoted from Part One)

For my third African novel I chose Naruddin Farah's From a Crooked Rib, the story of a teenage Somali girl, Ebla, who flees from her nomadic tribe in the country to find a new life in Mogadishu. Upset when her grandfather decides to marry her off to an older man, Ebla decides that running away is her only option.

Leaving behind her grandfather, whom she loves (even though she suspects that he doesn't love her in return), and her younger brother, who is sorrowful at her departure, she sets off with another band of Nomads and ends up in first a small town, and then in a large city.

While it was interesting to learn about life in Somalia, and to see the different perspectives of country and city life, I found the tone of the novel to be rather distant, and many of the characters to be unsympathetic. Ebla in particular is frustrating, because she frequently thinks about the unfair treatment of women in her culture, and takes steps to escape it, but the next moment she is passively letting men manipulate and abuse her. I suppose this is more due more to the oppressive culture than to the protagonist, but as a feminist I still found it frustrating.

A couple of characters did stand out as likable or humorous—the widow who befriends Ebla when she first arrives in the city, and Asha, the landlady at her apartment building in Mogadishu, who helps her manipulate the men in her life and adds a bit of comedy to the otherwise bleak story—but all in all I would say the novel was not what I had hoped it would be. Maybe the culture was just too foreign for me to be able to really engage with the protagonist's journey.

I definitely admire Farah for his willingness to tackle the difficult subject of misogyny in his native culture, and his decision to tell the story from a female perspective. I also learned some new things about Somali culture, so I'm glad I read the novel, even if it just didn't hit the right note for me.

Two stars out of five.