How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Advantages:
Compelling reading, beautifully written
Disadvantages:
Leaves you wanting more
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Every now and again, I get terribly ashamed that I know so little about the Middle East when it seems to play an increasing role in our everyday life. So when my local library decided to have a promotion of books translated from Arabic into English, I borrowed a couple that looked interesting. This was the first one that caught my attention. As the first novel in a trilogy, it introduces a family living in Cairo between the two World Wars, describing their everyday life and how the political situation at the time affects them. I was hooked from page one. Vividly written, it inspires sympathy for the family and a strong desire to find out what happens to them.
The story Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad rules his family with a rod of iron. His wife, Amina, waits on him hand and foot while he spends his evenings cavorting with other women. His two daughters, Khadija and Aisha are trapped within the household, waiting until their betrothal. His son by his first wife, Yasin, enjoys the hedonistic pleasures of life; namely women and alcohol. Fahmy is far more learned, interested in politics and how to bring about the freedom of Egypt from British rule. Little Kamal, the baby of the family, spends his days working out how to have fun without his father noticing.
This book traces the lives of the family as they try to cope with life under both their father's and British rule. Amina's one chance to leave the walls of her home leads to disaster when she is involved in a car crash. Khadija and Aisha are asked for their hand in marriage. Yasin chooses a bride. Fahmy becomes deeply involved in politics and Kamal is saddened to find that marriage takes his sisters away from him. Will the family be able to stay together despite all these changes in their life?
The characters I was part horrified; part full of admiration for the women in this book. Amina basically signed her life away when she married her husband. She is infrequently allowed to visit her mother, but only when accompanied by her husband and apart from that never leaves the house. Yet, she has no complaints and is grateful for the fact that her husband has not married a second or third wife. Her daughters, too, accept their lot with very little complaint. Peeking out of the window is about all the excitement they get out of life. All three women were beautifully drawn; to the extent that I felt that I knew them. It is these women in particular that made the book so compelling; there is a feeling throughout the book that things are going to change and it made me keep turning the pages because I wanted to know how the changes would affect them in particular. The relationship between Khadija and Aisha is great fun to read - Khadija is plain, but capable and resents her beautiful younger sister, Aisha, which leads to some interesting sub-plots.
It was difficult to feel anything but disgust for Al-Sayyid Ahmad. Although to a large extent he is the way he is because of his culture and religion, he is still much stricter in the way that he treats his family than any of his friends, who allow their daughters and wives to go outside the house much more freely. At the same time, he doesn't follow his own rules; to the extent that when Yasin comes across him one evening when his father in the company of a lover, he doesn't recognise him because he is not used to seeing his father enjoy himself. I found myself in a fury on several occasions because of his behaviour - a sign of an excellently-crafted character.
His sons, Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal are all very different. Yasin is fun-loving, but selfish, and I found his attitude towards women, who were simply bits of meat to him, hard to handle. His father chases women, it is true, but Yasin goes one step further on more than one occasion when he attempts to rape female servants. At the same time, his father's relationship with his mother (al-Sayyid Ahmad's first wife) and indeed his father's example make it hard for him to behave otherwise. Fahmy is much more serious, much more honourable, but perhaps rather naïve in his political beliefs, which gets him into trouble. Kamal is still a young boy, deeply attached to the women in his family and finds it difficult to understand why he can't be friends with the English soldiers who camp outside his house. The individuality of each of the boys is a joy to read, as is their differing attitudes to life.
Conclusion Naguib Mahfouz is a winner of the Nobel Prize for his literature. With this in mind, I expected the book to be long and quite tedious. Long it is; tedious, absolutely not. I was gripped from page one. Much of the book is relatively action-free; daily tasks like eating breakfast, coffee-time, the walk to school are described in great depth, yet it is described in such a way that makes it seem colourful and interesting - the skill that only a great author can achieve. I was disappointed to get to the end of the book; but tempered by relief that there are still two more volumes in the trilogy that I cannot wait to get my hands on.
The translation is superb. I did not once feel that I was reading a translation; the language was flawless - impressive because it must have taken years to translate.
The book has been likened to a number of European novels, including John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, and works by Dickens, Balzac and Tolstoy. I actually found many comparisons with a Chinese novelist called Mao Dun, who wrote a trilogy about the changes in the life of a family during the Nationalist period, when China was slowly creeping towards Communism. I have no idea if Mahfouz ever read this trilogy, but I would not be at all surprised.
I adored this book. It is the best novel I have read in years and I have absolutely nothing to criticise about it. At no point did I feel that my lack of knowledge about the Egyptian culture was a problem. The book is about people, ordinary people like you and me, and this is what makes it such a fascinating book Highly highly highly recommended.
The book is available from play.com for £7.49. Published by Transworld Publishers it has 512 pages. ISBN: 0552995800
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