Stephanie Jane reviewed The dictator's last night by Yasmina Khadra
An interesting achievement
3 stars
I received a copy of The Dictator's Last Night by Yasmina Khadra from its publishers, Gallic Books, via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I forgot, when I chose the book, that I have already read a work by Yasmina Khadra: The Sirens of Baghdad back in July 2013 which was before I started reviewing everything! In both books, Khadra delves deep into the minds of his protagonists. In Sirens we followed a suicide bomber; In The Dictator's Last Night we spend a dozen hours in the imagined mind of Muammar Gaddafi during the night of his final capture and murder. This isn't exactly a spoiler as Khadra's novel keeps to the known timeline of Gaddafi's last movements.
It took about half the book for me to really get into the story. Gaddafi is, unsurprisingly, not at all likeable although his remembrances of his youth did allow me to …
I received a copy of The Dictator's Last Night by Yasmina Khadra from its publishers, Gallic Books, via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I forgot, when I chose the book, that I have already read a work by Yasmina Khadra: The Sirens of Baghdad back in July 2013 which was before I started reviewing everything! In both books, Khadra delves deep into the minds of his protagonists. In Sirens we followed a suicide bomber; In The Dictator's Last Night we spend a dozen hours in the imagined mind of Muammar Gaddafi during the night of his final capture and murder. This isn't exactly a spoiler as Khadra's novel keeps to the known timeline of Gaddafi's last movements.
It took about half the book for me to really get into the story. Gaddafi is, unsurprisingly, not at all likeable although his remembrances of his youth did allow me to understand him more. Once he is forced to flee, the novel's pace leaps for a breathtaking final ride that makes for an exciting read. The Dictator's Last Night is written entirely in the first person and, as a feat of imagining one man's mind, it is certainly an interesting achievement. However, due to this device, it is also necessarily restricted to a narrow point of view and I would have liked a wider perspective. I am wondering if anyone has suggestions for other works to fill out the picture?
