From a Crooked Rib

This is a story about Ebla who runs away from home when her grandfather promises her hand in marriage. She runs to her cousins home who then tries to sell her hand in marriage. Once she finds out she runs again, this time offering herself in marriage to someone else, thinking in doing so she will be taking control of her life. Ebla's story is interesting in that it is the story of many Somalian women. They say "women were created from the crooked rib of Adam and if anyone tries to straighten it, he would have to break it". I recommend you read this book and find out if anyone tries to straighten Ebla. It will be worth you finding out.

Written 40 years ago, this early novel from Somali writer Nuruddin Farah tells of an independent but uneducated young woman who leaves her tribe rather than marry a man she does not care for and flees to a life in town - first a rural center called Belet Wene and then to the city of Mogadishu. It is near the time of Somalia's independence from Italy, and her unsophisticated and limited grasp of what independence means for her may well represent the author's vision of Somalia, about to steer its own course in the modern world - a path that has led, as we know, to much political and economic discord. Ebla, the central character, takes shelter first with a cousin, whose wife gives birth to a child in the first days of her arrival. In spite of her independence, Ebla often permits herself to be guided by decisions others make for her, which is much of the time. As a result, she marries a man she has met only once, and while her first husband is away for several months, she marries another man, who is himself already married (permissible for him in a Muslim culture) but to a battle-ax of a woman who thoroughly intimidates him. In a picaresque style that varies between comedy and melodrama, the story focuses in passing on the conditions of being female in Somalia where, created from the "crooked rib" of Adam, a woman counts in Muslim law as only half a person, marriages are arranged for them, female circumcision is common, and only a clever, worldly woman can achieve a hard-won independence from dominance by men.

Nuruddin Farah's 1970 fiction debut is certainly the best possible entry into the world and work of this marvelous story-teller. The style is smooth and rich like a finely woven tapestry. Don't believe a single word of what the other reviewer has said : some people tend to think that literature is a branch of sociology or history !!!