Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006)

'You're a failure as a father. Your best son has died, the second's a loss and the third is headstrong'
By sally tarbox on 21 Feb. 2014
Format: Paperback
The superb follow-up to 'Palace Walk' resumes the family saga five years on. Patriarch Ahmad is slightly less of a tyrant since the tragedy:

'It was not out of the question at such a moment for Kamal to ask his father politely ''When will custody of Ridwan revert to his father, Papa?" In that way he demonstrated the dramatic transformation of show more his relationship to his father.
Al -Sayidd Ahmad had replied "When he turns seven" instead of screaming "Shut up, you son of a bitch!"

Wife Amina enjoys permission to venture out - a little - and has even started speaking her mind on occasion. With the daughters married off, the principal action in this volume comes from the menfolk, notably youngest son Kamal, who has fallen desperately in love with the sister of a wealthy schoolfriend. His pure and obsessive adoration for Aida is utterly compelling, as we follow his maturing and his changes in beliefs.
Older brother Yasin meanwhile continues a life of loose-living; and after a period of abstinence Ahmad too has taken to nights out again, and a new mistress...
Absolutely unputdownable; Mahfouz leaves us on a cliffhanger that means you just have to start on volume 3! show less

(4) This is the 2nd book in the author's Cairo trilogy. Works mentioned along side some of my most favorite historical fiction literature such as Scott's 'The Raj Quartet,' and Farrell's 'Empire Trilogy.' Though this book is written by an Egyptian as opposed to someone from Great Britain talking about the colonized or formerly colonized lands. I liked this book both more and less than the first book, 'Palace Walk.' More, as the author is revealed to me as someone less old school Islamic and show more more liberated and all encompassing in his views. He is just talented in that his writing is not from an omniscient standpoint, but instead he disappears inside his characters. I see that now. Less enjoyable as there was alot more tedious, introspective parts. Jeez, Kamal and his crush - I wanted to smack him. But yet, I see the brilliance of the author really inhabiting what it means to be 18 and idealistic and lovelorn and disillusioned. Soul-crushing for Kamal even though the older reader is exasperated.

I now can see why the Islamic brotherhood or whatever crazy Islamic fundamentalist group of the day was calling fatwa on Mahfouz. Some of Kamal's musings really shine a ridiculous light on religion and the predicament of how to live a good and meaningful life when you no longer believe. So the writing is powerful, if not at times tedious. Some characters continue to piss one off such as Yasin and the father who I will never warm up to. The scene is set for the next book - tragedy is hinted at and the reader feels so sucked into these lives that one knows you will read on.

However, a break is needed. As this is dense, often repetitive, often stream of consciousness. I am not sure the casual reader would enjoy, but I sense myself growing more enamored as the pages go by similar to how I felt about 'The Raj Quartet.' Sucked into a different world and time which is not always enjoyable but yet you must keep reading - as if a spell has been cast over you. I can hear the distant sounds of both a tamborine and the call to prayer. show less

(25) Part 1 in a Nobel Prize winning trilogy about a family in Cairo living their lives between the two World Wars and when Egypt was wresting control of the British Protectorate. A time and history I know very little about. Mahfouz's characterization and intricate story telling has been compared to Dickens, to the J.G. Farrells' 'Empire Trilogy', and Paul's Scott's 'The Raj Quartet' -- all authors and literature I have enjoyed and greatly admired. This has been missing from the oeuvre oft show more mentioned together so I figured I would begin the trilogy when I found the first book in a used bookstore. While I would say it did not disappoint, I did struggle with the novel.

The novel is written from multiple POV's and at times stream of consciousness but is always readable (unlike fro example Joyce's stream of consciousness blather) The patriarch is VERY hard to empathize with - conceited, self-righteous, duplicitous, hypocritical, domineering, misogynistic. The list goes on. However much the reader (? and the author) can see these things, the other characters do not. They revere him. This was tough for me and I bristled at the hyper-religiosity of a strict Islamic family life that did not allow the women to leave the home and considered them impure and defiled if another man looked at them (even if it wasn't their fault!!) The author had the female characters (whom also narrated at times)- the sheltered Amina, and her two daughters - buy into this sublimation of their identity and submit to the religious patriarchy almost without question and this really rankled. I was left wondering what the author himself actually believed. And therein was my discomfort. Are you serious right now? You are pissed a male doctor had to come and look at the woman's crotch post childbirth especially as it turned out she was OK after all... Women who are raped during a war crime will not be able to live under their husband's roof again as they have been defiled... WTF.

Ultimately, the characters come alive. One can picture Palace Walk with shops and the minarets and the latticed balconies and all the various shopkeepers, kohl-lined eyes and scarf wrapped faces of heavy-set beauties with their lutes and incense, and the serious scholarly young men in their kurtas and fez heading out to the coffee shops and classrooms. I loved Kamal and his flights of fancy and normal little boy ways. I did empathize with the climactic ending and imagined the next scene with a heavy heart. I will read the next installment. But, I am left with an increasingly negative sentiment about Islam despite the humanity of the characters. Normally works of great literature cultivate universality despite differences of time and culture - not so here for this reader and that is a bit disappointing. But I will give the author the benefit of the doubt and will allow it all to spool out. show less

This is a book to be savored. Each sentence is a finely crafted piece of genius. And you want to dwell on each one for an inordinate amount of time. Or you want to keep rereading the sentence, wondering how Naguib Mahfouz knew that this particular combination of words would transform the narrative into something so….beautiful.

Palace Walk is a family saga taking place in Cairo in the years during and immediately following WWI. The Muslim patriarch of the Sayid family, al-Sayid Ahmad Abd show more al-Jawad, is a tyrannical brute who lives by a double standard. He subjects his wife, Amina and daughters Aisha and Khadija, to a life of complete and total isolation where they are not permitted out of the house and his sons Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, live in constant fear of their father’s strict discipline. This severe interpretation of the Quer’an, however, somehow permits him to adopt entirely different rules for himself. He spends each evening drinking and carousing and partying and when oldest son Yasin, observes his father with another woman he can’t help but comment:

”What a strange man he was to sanction forbidden forms of entertainment for himself while denying his family legitimate enjoyments.”(Page319)

The Sayid family, up until Yasin’s observations, is completely unaware of their patriarch’s double life and even if they had known, really, what could they do? They lived in total and complete domination by a man who willfully refrained from smiling in front of his family, in order to keep up his reputation as a tyrant. I have to admit, I kept waiting for some kind of resolution of this aspect of this family’s plight because it was so outrageous. As a lifelong resident of the West, I just don’t know enough about other cultures and this story takes place almost 100 years ago, but to hold women prisoner in their homes, to not educate women so that no men will know what they look like is so foreign to me. So thank you Mr. Mahfouz for the education. On the other hand, I could not warm up to al-Sayid Ahmad. He goes so against the grain of anything that hints at women’s rights. So it’s surprising how much I loved this book.

One thing I must comment on and that is the fine-detailed, acutely defined characterizations of all the family members. As the story is told through the viewpoints of all of them, it was important for these characters to ring true, and they certainly do.

Under the dreadful conditions in the Sayid home, Mahfouz spins a tale of life in Egypt during the time of the British occupation. And middle son Fahmy, is a dedicated freedom fighter that loves his country and will do anything, even go so far as defying his father’s order to stop participating in the distribution of handbills. And when the British set up a check point right in front of the residence on Palace Walk, things really heat up. Can anything good come of this? The author builds suspense, page by page, until the final climactic page when it becomes apparent that this tale will be continued in another volume. And I will certainly be reading that one shortly. Highly recommended. show less