The History Book Club discussion

SPOILER THREAD - THIS IS THE GLOSSARY THREAD

This is the glossary thread for the book The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between

byHisham Matar

Libya's Forgotten King - Episode 1

The map of modern Libya was not fully drawn until the mid-20th century. The land was fought over by the Ottomans, Italians and the British.

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WHAT FOLLOWED: The 1969 Libyan coup d'état, also known as the al-Fateh Revolution or the 1 September Revolution, was a military coup d'état in Libya carried out by the Free Officers Movement, a group of military officers led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which led to the overthrow of King Idris I

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The map of modern Libya was not fully drawn until the mid-20th century. The land was fought over by the Ottomans, Italians and the British.

It had comprised three ancient provinces - Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the west and Fezzan in the south.

The desert Ottoman province of Cyrenaica was where the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali Senussi founded his Sufi Muslim religious order in the late 18th century.

He established the Senussi movement as a response to what he saw as the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality at the time.

When the UN delegate came to Libya, he visited all its regions, north, east and south. They said the country was suffering poverty, disease and illiteracy. It needed a miracle to stand on its own feet because it had no resources

According to Idris Al-Harir, the historian and former political activist, Senussi established the order in Cyrenaica "first as a religious 'good deed' but later to make it the centre of his political power". He built 330 zawiya, religious study centres, and Jaghbub, on the border with Egypt, became the focus of this new order in eastern Libya.

Cyrenaica was also where Senussi's grandson, Idris, would one day become the ruler of the United Libyan Kingdom.

This two-part film tells the fascinating story of Idris, the country's first and, so far, only monarch - Libya's now forgotten king.

King Idris ruled from 1951 until Muammar Gaddafi seized power in a coup in 1969. Given events in Libya in the past five decades, his life and reign seem now to have faded from public consciousness.

The history of modern Libya is often thought of as synonymous with Gaddafi, but the man who preceded him was a nationalist and an astute politician at a time when his homeland was fought over by colonial powers.

We look at the rise of Idris, who succeeded his father as leader of the Senussi people, and explore his early years. His journey to Mecca to perform Hajj at the time of World War I helped shaped his understanding of the political world around him. On his pilgrimage, he met the Khedive of Egypt, the Ottoman Wali in the Levant; and Sharif Hussein in the Hijaz. On his way home to Cyrenaica, he also met British military leaders in Egypt.

The Senussis supported Germany and the Ottomans in World War I but fought the post-war Italian colonisation of their region. When Cyrenaica and Tripolitania became Italian colonies in 1917, Benito Mussolini did, however, recognised Idris as the Emir of Italian Cyrenaica.

In World War II, King Idris and the Senussis formed an alliance with the British in their North African campaign to try and end Italian occupation. This helped the British defeat Italy and Germany in Africa in 1943.

In 1949, the British were instrumental in enabling Idris to announce the independent Emirate of Cyrenaica and when he was also elected Emir of Tripolitania, he had begun the process of Libyan unification. In December 1951, he proclaimed the United Libya Kingdom, naming himself as King.

At a speech at al Manar Palace in Benghazi, King Idris came up with his famous phrase: "Keeping independence is harder than gaining it."

Both before and during his reign, he was accused of being a puppet in the hands of Western powers. In the early 1950s, his country desperately needed investment and Idris did deals with Britain and the US, allowing them to build military bases in Libya in return for funding development in Libya. Arab nationalists were upset that he maintained such strong ties with the West.

Libya began to prosper economically once oil was discovered in 1959 and the profits began to be generated in the early 1960s.

Idris' health deteriorated and while in Turkey in August 1969 he abdicated in favour of his nephew.

During his absence, however, he had already been deposed in a coup by a group of army officers led by Muammar Gaddafi.

The monarchy was abolished, a republic proclaimed and Idris sentenced to death in absentia. He went into exile in Egypt and died in Cairo in 1983, aged 93.

King Idris Senussi Crowned King of Libya



The short video shows a brief newsreel sequence announcing King Idris' coronation in late 1951, and shows him waving to the cheering crowds in Tripoli.

Source: Youtube

Gaddafi: Our Best Villain

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Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi (born 7 June 1942) is a Libyan politician and revolutionary, who has led the Libyan state since he overthrew King Idris in a 1969 bloodless coup and established the Libyan Arab Republic.

He went on to survive revolts, military strikes and embargoes while showing a knack for playing to Western interests, namely geopolitical security and oil reserves.

It’s no surprise many of the interviews about hidden dealings are tainted by realpolitik. These personal accounts from key players are a fascinating foray into the diplomatic world of riddles, theatrics and hidden agendas.

In early February 2011, major political protests, which were inspired by recent protests in Tunisia, Egypt and other parts of the Arab world, broke out in Libya against Gaddafi's government and quickly turned into a civil war. Gaddafi vowed to die a martyr if necessary in his fight against rebels and external forces, saying that those rebelling against his government deserve to die.

On 17 May 2011 the International Criminal Court issued a request for an arrest warrant against Gaddafi for crimes against humanity.

This insightful essay-style documentary by Frenchman Antoine Vitkine puts current events into perspective by examining the motivations behind the actions of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, a man whose peculiar appearance belies savvy negotiation skills.

European priorities, Libyan realities: the central Mediterranean refugee crisis

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The session will take as its starting point the October 2017 long-read article entitled European priorities, Libyan realities by Daniel Howden. While in Italy, as in Europe, we witness a progressive criminalization of NGOs and human rights activists, in Libya shocking conditions await those fleeing from war zones in search of salvation. Every kind of abuse is on the agenda for migrants who end up in the hands of the exploitation industry controlled by the Libyan militias. Lager is a word that has come back to the forefront of international news regarding the camps where migrants are held. The price of attempts in Europe to impose a political agenda based on rejection and on the closing of borders is being paid elsewhere, well away from Western gazes and consciences.
Con: Daniel Howden (senior editor Refugees Deeply), Francesca Mannocchi (freelance journalist), Alessio Romenzi (freelance photographer)

People & Power - Libya: the migrant trap (Vintage 2014)

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Source: Youtube

Libya: The Watchmen of Ruins
ARTE Reportage

Last summer, UNESCO ranked five Libyan sites on its list of "endangered" masterpieces. In an unstable country where two Parliaments and two rival governments clash, rival armed militias roam near priceless ancient sites. And the threat of IS is ever present.

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Source: Youtube

A Yank in Libya (free classic movie)

Benghazi

The Benghazi attack on embassy



Source: Youtube

Hisham Matar reads from his book 'The Return: Fathers, Son And The Land In Between



Source: Youtube

Absolutely - one of the most powerful passages that there was for me in this book - especially if you have lost your father because he has passed or for whatever reason is no longer with you. It is absolutely breathtaking in the raw power of the words and the feelings they evoke.

“They are men, like all men, who have come into the world through another man, a sponsor, opening the gate and, if they are lucky, doing so gently, perhaps with a reassuring smile and an encouraging nudge on the shoulder.

And the fathers must have known, having once themselves been sons, that the ghostly presence of their hand will remain throughout the years, to the end of time, and that no matter what burdens are laid on that shoulder or the number of kisses a lover plants there, perhaps knowingly driven by the secret wish to erase the claim of another, the shoulder will remain forever faithful, remembering that good man’s hand that had ushered them into the world.

To be a man is to be part of this chain of gratitude and remembering, of blame and forgetting, of surrender and rebellion, until a son’s gaze is made so wounded and keen that, on looking back, he sees nothing but shadows.

With every passing day the father journeys further into his night, deeper into the fog, leaving behind remnants of himself and the monumental yet obvious fact, at once frustrating and merciful—for how else is the son to continue living if he must not also forget—that no matter how hard we try we can never entirely know our fathers.”

― Hisham Matar, The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between

Hisham Matar @ The American Library in Paris | 18 January 2017

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Hisham Matar speaks at the Library about his superb, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between, which recounts his experience returning to Libya to search for answers about his father's disappearance years earlier.

He speaks with Library programs manager Grant Rosenberg.

Note: Interesting interview after Matar finished reading aloud

Source: Youtube

The Top Ten Most Beautiful Places in Libya



Source: W - Traveling

Discover Libya – Al Khums City

Al-Khums is a coastal city in western Libya, 120 km to the east of Tripoli. It’s famous for the ancient Roman city Leptis Magna. The Libya Observer was there to see the main attractions of the city.

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Source: Youtube

In the Country of Men
Fiction - but there seem to be elements that are part of Matar's life

by Hisham Matar

Synopsis:

In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the effects of Libyan strongman Khadafy's 1969 September revolution.

Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman’s days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father’s constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother’s increasingly disturbing bedside stories full of old family bitterness. And then one day Suleiman sees his father across the square of a busy marketplace, his face wrapped in a pair of dark sunglasses. Wasn’t he supposed to be away on business yet again? Why is he going into that strange building with the green shutters? Why did he lie?

Suleiman is soon caught up in a world he cannot hope to understand—where the sound of the telephone ringing becomes a portent of grave danger; where his mother frantically burns his father’s cherished books; where a stranger full of sinister questions sits outside in a parked car all day; where his best friend’s father can disappear overnight, next to be seen publicly interrogated on state television.

In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public nightmare. But above all, it is a debut of rare insight and literary grace.

Awards:

Man Booker Prize Nominee (2006)

Guardian First Book Award Nominee (2006)

Arab American Book Award for Fiction (2007)

National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2007)

The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize (2007)

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in South Asia and Europe (2007)

International DUBLIN Literary Award Nominee (2008)

Anatomy of a Disappearance
Fiction - but there seem to be elements that are part of Matar's life

by Hisham Matar

Synopsis:

Nuri is a young boy when his mother dies. It seems that nothing will fill the emptiness that her strange death leaves behind in the Cairo apartment he shares with his father. Until they meet Mona, sitting in her yellow swimsuit by the pool of the Magda Marina hotel. As soon as Nuri sees her, the rest of the world vanishes. But it is Nuri’s father with whom Mona falls in love and whom she eventually marries. And their happiness consumes Nuri to the point where he wishes his father would disappear.

Nuri will, however, soon regret what he wished for. His father, long a dissident in exile from his homeland, is taken under mysterious circumstances. And, as the world that Nuri and his stepmother share is shattered by events beyond their control, they begin to realize how little they knew about the man they both loved.

Anatomy of a Disappearance is written with all the emotional precision and intimacy that have won Hisham Matar tremendous international recognition. In a voice that is delicately wrought and beautifully tender, he asks: When a loved one disappears, how does their absence shape the lives of those who are left?

I finished the book a couple of days ago but I felt I had to let it sink in before I could make up my mind about it. First my problems with the book.

There are spoilers here!!!

1) I like to knowing as little as possible about the books I plan to read. I did not realize that the book would be so focused on the feelings of loss and the emotional turmoil around it. I thought I would be getting much more of the history of Libya.

2) And related to that. I never really understood why Qaddafi hated his father. Yes his father did not like the authoritarian attitude of Qaddafi but was that the only reason or was there more to it?

3) I also felt it worked against the book that he jumped so much back and forth in the story. Knowing that he does not find out what happened to his father kills the suspense that could have been there.

4) At times the text becomes too poetic for a text like this (IMO). I feel the author is going out of his way to be poetic where it was really not needed.

Still there are some amazing chapters in this book (and some poetic texts that really work). I especially loved the meetings he has with the government officials. How they try to silence him by promising him news while dragging their feet and giving him stupid excuses. And to add insult to injury, constantly trying to get him to join them. It's almost like they don't understanding how insulting it is. These chapters showed well how easily a government can be challenged but at the same time how easily it can bribe people into silence, by promising them things they have no intent to fulfill.

Thorkell on many of your excellent points - I could not agree more. But I am still liking the book too and I like to give authors the benefit of the doubt until I have read the entire book.

But you have pointed out some things right out of the gate that I noticed too.

Good analysis and review. However, some of what Matar has written is quite powerful and though he is poetic - I like his style for this book which is an emotional one for him. Like I said in my previous post - if you like spare writing where every single word counts and is perfect - look to McCarthy - my favorite living American writer.

Thank you for your post.

Hope to see you join us for a read where you can participate throughout - join in on the thread where you see a discussion topic or two where you might add your perspective.

Cormac McCarthy

I can't find your previous answer to my review but yes McCarthy knows how to use words. I look forward to your thoughts once you are done with the book. I will look at the other discussions. Thanks!

Great. He certainly does - my favorite living American writer - I think he is the best America has who is alive - he sometimes reminds me of - William Faulkner.

I like Jon Meacham, David McCullough, Ron Chernow all for different reasons.

Jon Meacham

Cormac McCarthy

David McCullough

Thorkell - another thing we do to help our authors - we add their photo and then their link so that our members can link to them and the goodreads software then adds them to the whitespace to the right on each thread and across the goodreads site as authors we are talking about. We try to give books and authors some buzz in a nice professional way. It might seem OCD but it isn't - by doing that the goodreads software picks up the linkages and adds them to the book listing on the right and the author's listing on the right; if a book or author is mentioned more than once - it notes that as well. If you do not cite them with those links - no notice is taken by the goodreads software. However if you do - any member can look up the post and the thread that the discussion of any book or any author took place on and link to it automatically. Since we are technically savvy here - we like to use the power of the software to help our members and vice versa. Hope the explanation helps you understand that what we do does have a purpose. We do it with our book citations too so that the software picks it all up.

Here is what we do for books we are discussing. We do not have to do it for Matar because this is a thread dedicated to him and to his book.

A sample: (check out the white space on the right - you will see why - every thread has its own list of books and authors - very helpful for each topical area.

by David McCullough

I will certainly circle back and talk with you again once we are done with the book. On the last week of each book discussion we ask for a review of the book during the Book as a Whole and Final Thoughts week. It is quite an eye opener to see who liked the book and why and also who had some reservations. I really think that every book hits every reader in a unique way. Take care and I will circle back.

I have not read anything by
Jon Meacham
or
David McCullough.

Which books do you recommend by them?

Well for Jon Meacham - he is usually always excellent. His style is more formal like he is - but he did win the Pulitzer for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. We discussed this on the group site.

by Jon Meacham

And he has a newer book out which I plan to cover here as well. It is called The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels.

by Jon Meacham

The Christian 카지노싸이트 Monitor and NPR liked it; so did many other publications.

David McCullough - everything by him is smooth and flows.

Of course he won the Pulitzer Prize twice.

by David McCullough

You cannot go wrong with any of the above.

Great job on the citations by the way.

Thanks!!!

Jon Meacham’s, The Soul of America, is an incredible read. The book is written like a symphony. Particular ideas and themes return again and again in different settings. His style is grounded in historical facts weaved together with the past’s implications on current events. The final chapter plays like the Finale magically pulling everything together. Of course, I recommend it.

That was my second Meacham book. I started with his Jefferson biography. I plan to read his Jackson biography, after I finish the Chernow books. I’m on my 4th now, Titan.

Regarding Matar, the constant changes in the setting made the book difficult to follow. At some point, I surrendered and figured the timeline wasn’t essential to his story. The chapter that touched me most was Years.

by Jon Meacham

Amie, I cannot believe that I missed your thoughtful post. Sometimes goodreads does not alert you to when someone has posted on a particular thread - and I assume that this is the case here.

I am glad that you liked the book and the poetic language of the book more than made up for the confusion in the timeline but I do agree.