A review by cgreenstein
Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah

3.0

Hated the first half, got into the second half, though didn't like the narrator until the last 20 pages or so (though I don't think he was intended to be particularly likable, so that's not a problem with the writing). The first half of this is obsessed with sodomy, bodily fluids, and excrement, which I really did not get the point of. Is it to communicate squalor? Degradation? ??? Did male rape really need to be the running theme here in order for the author to get his point across? Maybe. I don't know. I'm not a Nobel Prize winner, nor am I a literary critic, nor do I particularly enjoy literary fiction coming of age stories. I've heard this is his least-impressive book and largely unnotable, though, so maybe I'll try something else of his that's supposed to be better.