Though Africa has been beset by conflict since the end of European colonialism, surely few of its nations have experienced as much mindless chaos, such nihilistic bloodshed, as Somalia. For decades now, this coastal nation has been plagued by conflict and torn apart by rapacious warlords grasping for power. Such is their grip that not even the earnest efforts of the UN appear to have soothed its national nightmare. In fact, with the rise to power of its sea-born pirates, it appears to have only emboldened its destructive forces. Few of Somalia's native sons are better able to authentically articulate this atavistic anarchy than Mr. Farah who, since taking up exile from his country in 1976, has written vividly, and at length, about his troubled homeland. And here, in Links he succeeds in giving his readers a glimpse into its burdens.
Jeebleh is a Somalian exile living in New York when he hears of his mother's death from old age in the country of his birth. Though he is an educated and successful man with a wife and two daughters, he nonetheless feels a powerful pull to return home to settle accounts with his mother's spirit. So, abandoning the stability and lawfulness of Western life, Jeebleh journeys back to war-torn Africa where he intends to contact his mother's housekeeper as a means of locating the dead woman's grave.
No sooner has he landed, then Jeebleh receives a crash course in Somalian nihilism. He witnesses a game played by teenaged punks wherein they target one of the many passengers disembarking a plane and shoot their victim in cold blood. In this, they are motivated by nothing more than sport, a momentary distraction from boredom. The incident profoundly affects Jeebleh who resolves to complete his business as swiftly as possible. But when he realizes that the brilliant niece of one of his oldest friends has been mysteriously kidnapped, events quickly spiral out of Jeebleh's control, sending the ill-prepared westerner barreling headlong towards a confrontation with one of the country's many, ruthless warlords.
Though Links is a moving expose of the existential challenges of Somalian life, of the disrepair of the Somalian state, and of the clan loyalties that complicate the former and exasperate the latter, Mr. Farah's two-dimensional characters fail to engage the reader's emotions. Part of this is clearly a deliberate choice on the part of Mr. Farah to convey the sense of numbness Somalians must cultivate as a self-defense mechanism against the horrors they are forced to witness on a daily basis. But the author fails to distinguish this numbness from the general flatness of his characters which leaves the reader feeling anesthetized to the drama taking place here. Make no mistake, Mr. Farah has penned a shocking and compelling portrait of Somalian life, capturing all of the damage that eventuates from a country devastated by warlords. However, if the reader cannot connect with any of the story's characters, then this chaos, no matter how superbly it is depicted, is all-but reduced to an academic exercise.
Linksis a deeply disturbing glimpse of the price of war and the extent to which exposure to it can dehumanize even the most civilized souls. It is also a compelling demonstration of the challenges faced by well-intentioned, foreign powers trying to affect positive change in a country whose customs they cannot understand. But while these are points well-made, Mr. Farah's inability to weld this onto anything like a gripping narrative prevents Links from becoming memorable fiction. I feel far more educated about Somalian life than I do entertained by an actual story. (2/5 Stars)
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