Sweet and Sour Milk (Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship)

Excellent expose of the Somalian dictatorship that was.

I've never read anything like Nuruddin Farah's "Sweet and Sour Milk". This was an extraordinary reading adventure for me -- one that was beguiling, fascinating, strikingly unusual in its story telling, and complex. The story is a gripping one, yet this is no page-turner. The imagery and unique approach, along with a tidal wive of questions posed and largely left open as the story unfolds, left me not turning pages rapidly, but rather sitting back with the book folded on my lap as I contemplated the passage I had just read. This book is excellent food for reflection.Key story-line and composition elements are set forth nicely in the review posted on 19 Nov 1998, so I won't go into them.I've spent many years in Africa, but none in Somalia, and as I read this book I repeatedly felt my ignorance of that society and of the way people interact. I found the dialogues particularly intriguing; the flow of conversations, of silences, of questions and responses was something I had never experienced before. I found myself asking if Mr. Farah was giving me broadly applicable insights into the Somali mind ... or simply into the mind of a remarkable author.I look forward to rereading "Sweet and Sour Milk" one day. I'll be sure to remind myself not to be in a hurry, but rather to savor this book slowly, as it deserves.

Nuruddin Farah is a writer of tremendous talent. His mastery of English is sublime, as is his capacity to illustrate complex and troubling images. Alas, Farah's own talent bogs him down in this promising novel. Sweet & Sour Milk chokes on its own lyricism and craft.Although it takes the form of a whodunnit, the novel never gains speed. Instead the narrative feels overwrought: it has the narcissism of the author, who intrudes upon his characters' every utterance. The characters speak in beautiful and speech-like fashion. Conversations feel more like a string of soliloquys than people communicating in real life.Indeed, the esteemed New York Times Book Review wrote that Farah's trilogy "is feverishly lyrical; [he] has given us a powerful political statement that moves constantly toward song." That is high praise, and it's certainly one way to read Farah. The same song-like qualities of the book can also be its undoing.Sweet & Sour Milk remains engrossing for its very personal study of dictatorship, and for its weaving of family and power in an unholy fabric. Physical terror and patriarchy complement eachother in a ghastly alliance. The author leaves an impressive record of a world built upon the exclusion of truth. But by the end, I longed for Farah to leave the story alone.

Sweet and Sour Milk was published in 1979, four years after Somalian anglophone writer Nuruddin Farah was forced into exile by Siyad Barre's military regime. It is the first novel of the trilogy that also includes SARDINES and CLOSE SESAME. The overall title of the trilogy is "Variations on the Theme of an African dictatorship".The novel is the story of two twins, Loyaan and Soyaan. Loyaan is a dentist and Soyaan occupies an official position in the country's military regime. At the beginning of the novel (in the Prologue), Soyaan dies mysteriously. Before hiccupping his last, he shouts his twin brother's name three times.The whole novel is Loyaan's inquiry on his brother's death: who poisoned Soyaan? SWEET AND SOUR MILK is, in a way, a detective story with metaphysical and mythical undertones.Among other things, Loyaan finds out that Soyaan was a member of a clandestine organization that aimed at overthrowing the regime. He also finds out about the fact that Soyaan had a two-year old son, Marco.Loyaan is surrounded with supposedly friendly people, people who want to help, such as Doctor Ahmed-Wellie. Whom should he trust? Whom can he trust?And what do his mother and sister (Qumman and Ladan) think? Why does his father, Keynaan, (a patriarch and a dictator in his own household) "breathe respectability" into Soyaan's name by saying in the national newspaper that Soyaan was a national hero and a fierce follower of the General's regime?What does that mean? Why does Farah lead us through ambiguous pathways and seemingly clear-cut formulas? Why is there a poetical vignette at the head of each chapter and why do those vignettes sound like enigmatic allegories?At the end of the novel, Beydan, Keynaan's second wife, dies giving birth to a child who is immediately named Soyaan by the brave and firm sister, Ladan. Is that a note of hope?Well, read the novel and try to find answers to these questions, and to all the other enigmas that I have not mentioned.A good book can be read five or six times in a row, from several angles and divergent points of view. Take my word for it, this in an EXCELLENT book!BibliographyJacqueline Bardolph has written numerous articles on Nuruddin Farah. I can give you a complete list if you wish (my e-mail address is at the top of the page).Derek Wright, THE NOVELS OF NURUDDIN FARAH, Bayreuth African Studies, #32, 1994I have also written an extended essay devoted to the trilogy. It is called "A Study of Duality in Nuruddin Farah's Dictatorship Trilogy".Guillaume Cingal