A review by mercapto
Mister N by Najwa Barakat

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a very interesting and challenging read. I did struggle at first with how incoherent it seemed to be, and the back and forth timeline, but inexplicably it makes sense once you get about halfway through. 

It’s a book that covers a lot of topics close to Barakat’s heart, and also relevant to today’s events in Palestine - I’m not sure how many people are aware of the expulsion of Palestinians in the 40s and 60s, and them taking refuge in Lebanon. It’s obviously also takes a human look at the Lebanese civil war, all wars really, and what it does to a person. That even if people are physically alive, their souls are already dead along with murdered loved ones. It covers these heavy topics in the perfect way, I think, not too clinical but not sensationalist - just the cold reality. 

I think this would be a great one to reread to get a better picture of Mister N’s life once you know the right timeline. 

I’m not sure I think the final reveal added anything? I understood the events that happened, but the other reveal seemed a bit more shock factor to me and I’m not sure I fully understood it in the context of the rest of the novel. I also don’t really like the ‘police report’ ending trope; the way it has to be clinically written compared to the rest of the prose makes it sound poorly written. 

I think it also suffers from the curse of the bad blurb. I just don’t think it captures at all what this book is. It almost sounds whimsical - the tale of a book character come to life - when it is anything but. 

A good read though, I would recommend, and tell people to push through the confusion - it’s all part of the experience of this book.