Review: Shuki
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2013
I love Shuki. For a book of such immense length, I was quite startled that the urgency with which I started reading Not A Man never once let up.I wanted to know what happened next, and next, and next. It reads almost like a writing exercise of "...and then..." - it  keeps urging you forward as you hope for Shuki to find happiness.It's not a pretty book, which seems to be something I tend to say about books that I adore. I like books that aren't pretty or predictable.Dark fiction is my favorite, so long as there is always an element of hope, and Shuki is the most hopeful little boy (who grows to be not a man) that you will ever meet. He has the grace of acceptance contrasted with strong feelings of damage and, vengeful emotions, and ultimately a resilience that is easy to root for.When he was finally broken, I was a little bit shattered myself.I can't speak to any realism about the portrayal of either Arab or Oxford cultures, but I will say that I was very content to read this as a novel of epic fantasy. This novel has some highly fantastical elements - which I've become aware of more in hindsight then while I was reading - including how nearly every male who encounters Shuki immediately wants to rape him, and that so many of his "friends" would be willing to betray him without regard to either his humanity or their own.But this is Shuki's truth, whether merely perceived or real, and I did not question it as I followed the story to its end. I've already purchased The Kings Favourite, although I need to drop back into my own real life for a day or two before I can allow myself to be sucked back into Shuki's world.Finally... other reviewers have said Not A Man is not an erotic book, but I beg to differ. I found it quite erotic, in a dark sort of way.