Season of Migration to the North

Season of Migration to the North, written by Tayeb Salih, has an interesting style to it. Salih has very sharp transitions that seem to jump abruptly. This can even be seen in the first paragraph of the novel. He jumps right into the action with no subtle “leading in” statements. The abrupt transition can be seen most obviously between some chapters. At some points he skips years and crucial moments that he intends to go back to later. This can be seen when Mustafa dies. To the reader it almost doesn’t seem real because it happens so fast. I think this is the purpose for making this transition so fast because this is how the narrator was feeling at the time, “…the disturbing thought occurs to me that Mustafa Sa’eed never happened, that he was in fact a lie, a phantom, a dream or a nightmare…”(pg.37). This style of writing is also engaging because the plot moves very quickly and it makes the reader very curious about what is going to happen next.