Author Origin: born in Somalia. Currently lives in Windsor, Ontario.
Page Count:319
Genre: Fiction
Difficulty: Easy
Grade Level: 9-10
Key Talking Points: class division, the duty to one's family vs the duty to one's self, the civil war in Somalia, identity.
Sensitive Subject Matter: miscarriage. rape, murder, death, subjugation of women
Summary: Idil lives in Somalia with her two brothers, mother, and father. They are all of the higher "Bliss" class. Her father is an important man in the Somali army, but quickly abuses his rank and status by taking mistresses and straying from his family. Idil's mother employs many tactics to try and bring him back to her, all the while only blaming the women for her husband's transgressions. After Idil's mother decides to confront the issue head on, the family is forced to move to another town. While this doesn't fix any of the problems in her parent's marriage, Idil is introduced to a boy in her new school who would become the love of her life. The only problem is that he is "Boon," or lower class. Despite the government passing into law that Boon and Bliss are now equal, it does not stop Idil's parents from forbidding her to be around the "Boon boy." As Idil grows up, she only questions the rules her parents and society have placed on her more and more, eventually deciding to elope with her love. This act of rebellion against her country's norms and her parent's authority results in a continuous battle for the safety of herself and those she loves. When the civil war breaks out in Somalia, the struggle to survive and maintain her way of life is only compounded for Idil by relentless attacks from outside her family and within it.
Teacher Note: This novel introduces students to issues of women's rights through the development of Idil's identity and her questioning of the norms in the world around her. As her understanding of her world shifts and she becomes more aware of the reality she faces in Somalia, she rebels rather than accepting the inequality that everyone else seems to live by. Her rebellion is a personal one, and charting the ways she changes in response to her challenges makes for an interesting character study. This is also where the idea of family vs self comes into play, a struggle that Idil faces throughout the novel.
Students will need to be critical of the opinions expressed by both the male and female adults in the novel, which can be difficult for immature readers. Idil's mother is cruel and critical to other women, as well as self-deprecating. Idil's father, who at first is presented as an ideal husband and parent, is quickly revealed to be a misogynist. Both are also extremely classist. Much of the novel seems to show that upper class Somalians hold similar beliefs to Idil's parents, while lower class Somalians are represented as more generally accepting and egalitarian. A lot of these topics would make for good discussion, but could also be very controversial, depending on the reader's background and beliefs.
The representation of the civil war in Somalia, while presented as more of a backdrop to Idil's family conflicts, offers an avenue for research and the development of historical context. This could also help as a starting point for the conversations regarding the hot topics mentioned previously.
For the first half of the novel, I felt that Idil's story was relatable. I was encouraged to witness her challenge the views of her parents to claim the man she loves, despite his lower class, and to make a happy life with him. While the narrative voice starts as more juvenile, sometimes switching too quickly from one idea or emotion to an opposing one, it grows with Idil and becomes more mature as she does. However, the second half of the novel, once the civil war reaches Idil's town, seems to be a different text entirely. Just living everyday life through the civil war would have been interesting enough, but instead it is used as a catalyst for Idil to move around from location to location while a series of extraordinary events orchestrated by her parents and older brother take place. My reaction was often: "Really?! Again?" and "Who the heck has time for this sort of maliciousness when the whole country is in shambles?!" The hardships that Idil and her new family have to face at the hands of her old are excessive. Even with only 20 or so pages left in the story, a new threat is introduced, only to be dropped for an abrupt ending where untidy pieces are left dangling. It became hard for me to empathize with Idil and some of her decisions by the end of the novel and I was exhausted by the new threats presented one after another. Some readers might like the action in the later chapters, but I found it unrealistic.
Final Thought: Overall, I would say I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second. The first half encouraged me that this would be a story about a young girl and her coming of age against the challenging backdrop of the ingrained prejudices in her family and society. It would be one of those "Mirror" texts I've talked about in other reviews. Then, with the second half, I became unsure. So many of the real terrors of the civil war and the ingrained classism and misogyny in Somalia felt exploited for shock value in the plot, not really serving a purpose but to torture an already beaten down protagonist. So, overall, I don't know about this one. If you read it, I'd love to discuss with you.
📚 Ms. CAN Lit
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