A Raw Commentary on Egyptian Society Prior to The January 25th Revolution...and Beyond
My review on Amazon.com
This is Egypt. Its past of glorified and often lamented early 20th-Century grandeur as well as its present of turbulence and increasing desperation and repressiveness are artfully laid out for the reader to analyze, contemplate and invariably pity in this impressive literary work. This is Egypt that everyone knows well but rather not talk about.
The book captures the collective moral and physical destitution of the post-1970s Egyptian society like no other book has; at least none that I have ever read. The countrywide air of angst and despair is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The characters are drawn so skillfully and so realistically their pain is so intense and palpable it makes you wonder why it took so long for a revolution to erupt.
Speaking of characters, this book is rife with a diverse set of characters that are rich with complexity and alive with nuance. The author did an extraordinary job in taking the reader on an unforgettable journey through both the most inexplicable and most banal in Egyptian mores.
Each character represents a distinct reflection of Egypt herself. Her defiance, innocence, bitterness, lightheartedness, fanaticism, tolerance, softness, austerity, corruption, venality, hypocrisy, cowardice and hope.
Allegory definitely weighs heavily in this work of fiction.
Zaki Bey el Dessouki is an aristocrat and a francophile now living a shadow of his pre-1952-revolution posh life. He drowns his disillusion with reality in the pleasures of the flesh.
Zaki is a living reminder of an era that was once promising and hopeful, until Nasser came. Zaki recounts, "Abd el Nasser was the worst ruler in the whole history of Egypt. He ruined the country and brought us defeat and poverty. The damage he did to the Egyptian character will take years to repair. Abd el Nasser taught the Egyptians to be cowards, opportunists, and hypocrites."
Zaki embodies Egypt's murdered past of carefree and happy days. “Cairo was like Europe." He laments thinking of that time. "It was clean and smart and the people were well mannered and respectable ... What times! Every night was filled with laughter and parties and drinking and singing. There were lots of foreigners in Cairo. Most of the people living downtown were foreigners, until Abd el Nasser threw them out in 1956."
His sister, Dawlat, is the complete opposite. Her caustic and vitriolic bouts or rage defined her character since her children abandoned her and emigrated. Her goal in life was to make her brother's life a living hell, and she succeeds in doing so.
Dawlat represents a generation angry at the circumstances that led to the demise of their social standing; a generation so bitter and unhinged at what happened to them they either leave and forget about the old country or stay and unleash their wrath on everyone around them, including their loved ones.
Then there is Taha and Busayna. Two kindred spirits torn apart by reality. These pivotal characters tell the core story of Egypt. Their pure love tainted by poverty and their dreams drowned by a culture defiled by venality, nepotism, sexism, and classism. That is, in a nutshell, the story of Egypt.
And then of course, there is Hagg Azzam, a pious Muslim and a rich man who decides to join the Egyptian Parliament. The Arab world is rife with the likes of Hagg Azzam. They are the kings of hypocrites, the heads of opportunists and the leaders of cowards. They are the embodiment of the culture that's held Egypt and the Arab world hostage to a faulty religion.
Oppressing people and robbing them and killing them, all the while praising God in a sickening expression of sinister piety.
In an exchange between Hagg Azzam and an influential member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, the man says, "No Egyptian can go against his government. Some people are excitable and rebellious by nature, but the Egyptian keeps his head down his whole life long so he can eat. It says so in the history books. The Egyptians are the easiest people in the world to rule. The moment you take power, they submit to you and grovel to you and you can do what you want with them. Any party in Egypt, when it makes elections is in power, is bound to win, because the Egyptian is bound to support the government. It's the way God made them."
Sadly, that was not a disillusioned perception of reality by the corrupt government. People did grovel. People did obey. The Egyptian psyche has been conditioned since Nasser took office to be subservient.
This comes through in a correspondence between Taha and The President where Taha writes, imploring Mubarak to look into an injustice that has just befallen him. He goes on to say, "Your Excellency Mr. Presiden will see that your son ..." The submissive tone starts with the word "son."
The use of "son" and "daughter" inherently suggests the fallibility and inferiority of the citizenry, like a child that's eager to please his parent. The government, in turn, uses the words "father of the people" to refer to the relationship between Mubarak and the Egyptian people. This sort of condescending rhetoric was used excessively by Mubarak prior to his ouster on February 11, 2011.
Perhaps the most complicated character is that of Hatim Rasheed's, the token homosexual in this cast of "normal" people. Hatim is a successful, smart and good-natured man that lives in a society that considers him a pervert because of his sexuality. Hatim's lover, a simple rural man named Abduh, is a closeted homosexual with a wife and kid and illiteracy to boot. Hatim's tumultuous personal life offers the reader a glimpse of life for the educated liberals in Egypt.
I can go on and on about every character in this book. They are definitely very rich and very well fleshed out, but I'll leave some of that for you to explore on your own.
Reading this novel in the post-January-25th-revolution world makes me wonder about the fate of these characters in this "new" Egypt. Many of the the grievances expressed repeatedly by the author were what erupted the revolution.
Will the likes of Hagg Azzam and his cohorts finally get thrown in jail once and for all? Will Taha's dreams be allowed to flourish? Will Hatim's too? Will Zaki be able to feel proud again?
These are some of the questions you will be asking yourself as you're reading this book. It's very topical and extremely thought-provoking.
The only gripe I have with this book is the the translation. It's at times awkward and almost inaccurate. Some nuances are lost, as it is with most translated works of literature. Being fluent in Arabic makes it easy for me to spot those errors, but they're probably a nonissue to the non-Arabic reader.
Get this book and learn about the old Egypt, and when you're done, make a prayer that the new Egypt isn't anything like this.
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