Customer Reviews

The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)

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Don't let the size of this book scare you off. The chapters are short and are themselves self-contained stories: they make for perfect nighttime reading installments! And the plot, characters and wisdom of the book are consistently illuminating from the first pages to the very end. It is staggering how effortlessly Mahfouz feeds us the richest possible detail without ever allowing the energy of the story to flag.

In the wake of war in Iraq, an American reader will be particularly enriched from experiencing this novel. It tells the story of three generations of an Egyptian family between the two World Wars and reveals much about daily life in a Muslim family and the manner in which Western geopolitics impacted Arab life and culture. The pull of Western values and ideas on traditional Egyptian culture is so clearly and persuasively presented that the politics, resentments and even opportunities for understanding in today's Middle East suddenly seem much more discernible.

What makes the book a real standout is the way it presents profound life lessons and experiences in such a highly entertaining fashion. Serious political and social issues are explored beside the very real, sometimes ugly and often hilarious foibles of each character. The sincere quest for holiness seems as important and genuine in the lives of characters as the unquenchable thirst for pleasure. Mahfouz never preaches about the "correct path", but rather shares the complicated lives of his characters without sentimentality, prejudice or judgment.

The Cairo Trilogy is a breathtaking, uplifting and deeply affecting achievement. The prose is luminous, the incredible evocation of the sights and smells of Egypt unforgettable, the believability of the characters complete. Readers of Mann, Tolstoy, and Henry James will find in Mahfouz a similar command of grand architechture and epic sweep but unlike those writers Mahfouz's prose is light and airy and full of a master storyteller's ease. Throughout the book you marvel not only at the author's command of his craft, but also the clarity of his vision in showing us what matters.

In the end, what may make The Cairo Trilogy the most compelling for Western readers is that the family at the center of the tale is so very different from us and yet so like us. As modernity encroaches upon the family of the forbidding Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad and his dedicated wife Amina, you feel the same sense of loss and melancholy that they feel realizing that in the age of television and instant communication and mass marketed culture, the simple splendors of the family coffee hour may be forever behind us. If politicians and religious leaders around the world have shown themselves consistently unable to bridge the gaps between cultures, Mahfouz the novelist must be read if only to reconnect us with the essence of our shared humanity.

I am so happy to see the Cairo Trilogy finally presented in one volume instead of the three separate books that it was previously issued as......this single volume will really allow the reader to appreciate the scope and continuity of this epic about the struggles of a country and a family, tracing the struggle of each toward independence and in the context of a rapidly changing political and social environment.

All of that said.....let me encourage you to read this wonderful book, which is so beautifully written, a story that pulls you in from the first page and captures your imagination. I always through Tolstoy was my favorite author in terms of character development.....but it's clear to me that Mahfouz is equally talented in rendering characters that seem as real as friends.

I cannot wait to read more by this important author!

This is probably the best novel written in the Arab world . Writers who tried to mimic it later on like El Aswany in "The Yacoubian Building" were cheap, inexpressive and failed.

Mahfouz offers a profound exploration of his characters; their struggles, inconsistencies, turbulent thoughts and actions. Desire can force them to act against their will and conviction. Their weaknesses compel them to act tyrannical under a vague definition of tradition. And the hardships they face change them beyond their comprehension forcing them into abodes of disturbed philosophical thought. The novel is perfectly interrelated marking the beginning, end, and evolution of each character, place or event mentioned.

The book starts by recounting the mature and established life of Ahmed Abd El Jawad and his wife Amina. He is a tyrannical patriarch, exerting full domination over his family, drawing strict restrictions over their lives while enjoying a sexually corrupt life on his own in prostitute houses.

Until the last pages of the first book the Abd El Jawad family is only suffering from domestic problems that stem from the casual daily life, like Khadija's fear of spinisterhood due to her ugly nose, Fahmy's political life and his love to his neighbour, Mariam,Abd El Jawad's cruelty and compassion to Amina etc... However towards the end, in the last few pages the family is stricken by its first major tragedy: Fahmy's death. This tragedy had major everlasting implications which changed their lives forever.

The second novel marks the eventual changes that occurred to the family. The father's tyrannical image is diminished gradually. Kamal's friends are members of the educated elite society. He falls madly in love with his best friend's sister. His platonic adoration reminded me of Florentino Ariza in "Love in the Time of Cholera". They both almost worshipped their beloved who belonged to an upper middle class and ignored them. The description of the lovers' feelings at the wedding night is also highly parallel. Kamal's personality was formulated by two major incidences that took place in his life: his failure in love and his brother's death. His ideological confusion and abnormal life and behavior stemmed from them.

In El Sokariya the old Abd El Jawad hierarchy entirely falls apart and each of the grand-children formulates his own life. It reflects the political segmentation, ideological changes and the corruption of the time.

"Time" as a theme is wonderfully discussed in the Cairo trilogy. Former centers of authority lose their respect gradually and become objects of humiliation and disintegration. Kamal carries his father like a child in the last day of his life, participates in Aida's humble funeral and chooses not to marry her sister. She who used to be once adored and unreachable. The last part is particularly interesting when Yassin goes to buy things for his daughter's upcoming baby and a black tie for his stepmother's upcoming funeral.

Politics also forms an integral role in the novel and it goes through the change process as much as anything. At the beginning Fahmy dies as a Wafdist, and by time the Wafd becomes less popular and Khadija's sons are imprisoned for the new sparkling political currents: the Muslim Brotherhood and Communism.

Ahmed Shawkat marks at the end that an individual is obliged to two kinds of responsibilities: his responsibility towards his family and his political and ideological responsibility towards his country.

Kamal accepts his advice and plans to think about the truth behind it.

A perfect picture of the Egyptian life at that time and the general condition of human beings immersed in a social atmosphere.

I agree with everything said by the reviewer "imperato", he beat me to the chase. That might tell you something as a reader -- Mahfouz's literature transcends the personal. Again, his writing has qualities that surpass any of the great classics I have known. A soft, yet stimulating style, rich with detail and full of emtotional involvement. You might become enamored with Mahfouz, as I did, and read every last drop he has written. It is no exxageration to say that the ease of familiarity in his writing even surpasses Hemingway. Palace Walk in particular is an intriguing, emotional read. The quality diminishes with each volume, but after Palace Walk you will need to find out what happens next, for this reason you might as well buy the full set of three novels.

This book was, frankly, a revelation to me. Naguib Mahfouz is the only Arab author to ever win a Nobel Prize for literature, and it's easy to see why he won, if you base your judgement on this volume. This book is a compilation of his best-known and best-regarded work, three books which together are referred to as the Cairo Trilogy. Originally, the author had planned the whole work as a single novel, but after he finished it the publisher told him that a 1300 page novel wasn't possible in the 1950's Arab world, so they split it into three separate novels, with the original title of the whole book serving as the title for the first of the three novels: Palace Walk. Palace of Desire follows it, and Sugar Street concludes the trio.

Mahfouz is a remarkable writer. The book spans 30 years at the beginning of the 20th Century, in Cairo of course, and follows the lives of an extended family during this time. He spends an enormous amount of time at the beginning of the book establishing character and setting. The opening 100 or so pages follow the various members of the family through a single day in their lives, starting with the mother getting up to start the day, and following in turn her, her husband, and their children as they perform various tasks during the day. The narrative then takes off and follows these individuals through various calamities (one of the sons gets killed in a demonstration, the father is briefly pressed into service to help with fortification construction, and so forth). He reserves judgement as far as the characters are concerned, tells you how they rationalize their actions when they do something less than perfect, and lets the reader see the warts of each of the characters individually.

This is a long, involved, carefully written book. Frankly it invites comparison with almost any other epic novel that covers a generation or two like this, and it's actually better than more than a few of them. It also has, as a sidelight, insight into the character of the nation of Egypt, its people, and especially it spends a great deal of time discussing the character of the city, who lives their, and their attitude towards their neighbors. It's intensely interesting, frankly pretty well written (the translation is very easy to read) and I enjoyed it a great deal.

Naguib Mahfouz's "The Cairo Trilogy" is a family saga set against the Cairo of the first half of the twentieth century, from approximately 1917 to the mid 1940s. It was (like Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings") originally written as a single novel, but published as a trilogy for commercial reasons. The three volumes into which it is divided, however, do read like self-contained novels in their own right. The first, "Palace Walk", covers the late 1910s, the second "Palace of Desire" covers the mid to late 1920s and the third, "Sugar Street", chronicles the events of the thirties and forties. The titles of each part are taken from three streets in Cairo in which the characters live.

The main character is the paterfamilias Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, a well-to-do Cairo merchant who leads a strange double life. To his family he is a devout Muslim, a stern husband and father who imposes a strict discipline. His wife Amina is virtually confined to the family home; when she courts her husband's displeasure by daring to go out to visit, a few streets away, the shrine of an Islamic saint whom she reveres, the incident nearly ends in divorce. Yet there is another side to Ahmad. Away from his family he frequents houses of ill repute where he enjoys the company of women (he keeps several mistresses), drinking alcohol and other pleasures forbidden to him by his religion. We also meet Ahmad's sons- the irresponsible playboy Yasin, Fahmy, an idealistic Wafdist (Egyptian nationalist) who loses his life during a demonstration against British rule, and the young Kamal- and his daughters Khadija and Aisha, who are also very different in character. Aisha is beautiful and gentle like her mother, but is fated to have a tragic life. Khadija is less attractive, sharp-nosed and sharp-tongued, and initially worries about finding a husband. In the end, however, she makes as good a marriage as her sister (they marry a pair of brothers).

In "Palace of Desire" Kamal, who was only a mischievous schoolboy in "Palace Walk", starts to emerge as a major character. He falls passionately in love with Aida, the beautiful sister of a friend, but the relationship is destined to end unhappily as her wealthy, aristocratic parents do not regard the schoolmaster son of a shopkeeper as their social equal. Disappointed by the failure of this relationship, Kamal, once as idealistic as his older brother Fahmy, becomes a disillusioned cynic, losing both his idealism and his Islamic faith. He becomes obsessed with the study of philosophy, which he believes will enable him to understand the meaning of life, but this goal eludes him; all philosophy seems to teach him is that such an understanding is unattainable.

Kamal remains an important character in the third volume, "Sugar Street"; he has the chance to marry Aida's equally beautiful younger sister Budur, but does not do so, largely because he has grown used to a bachelor existence and fears that, if married, he would have less time for the philosophical problems which have come to obsess him. His father, however, by now elderly and in poor health, fades into the background in this book. The third generation, in the shape of Abd al-Jawad's grandsons, starts to play an important role. Yasin's son Ridwan is a homosexual who becomes the lover of an influential politician. (This must have been a daring theme in the Egypt of the 1950s when the book was written). Khadija's sons Ahmad and Abd al-Munim are committed followers of two very different ideologies, the first becoming a Communist and the second a Muslim fundamentalist.

Of these two ideologies, Mahfouz tends to devote more time to Communism. In 1957, the future of Egypt and the wider Arab world may well have seemed to consist of a choice between Communism and the secular nationalism espoused by the likes of President Nasser in real life and Fahmy and Kamal in the novel. Mahfouz, however, was to have a long life, dying last year at the age of 95, and was doubtless surprised to see the resurgence of religious fundamentalism during his lifetime, while Communism never won widespread support in the Muslim world and eventually withered even in its Soviet and Eastern European strongholds. Had Mahfouz been able to predict these developments, he might well have paid more attention to Abd al-Munim and his ideas.

One of the themes of the trilogy is the conflicts and contrasts between the Egyptian values and those of the West, especially Egypt's attempts to free itself from the influence of Britain (which remained pervasive even after the country had officially become independent in 1932). Westernised characters such as Aida and her family and contrasted with more conservative ones such as Abd al-Jawad. (Even he, however, becomes more liberal later in life, even allowing his wife to go out freely). It is notable, however, that apart from Abd al-Munim the most politically nationalistic characters are all strongly influenced by European thought. The philosophers who most influence Kamal are Westerners such as Bergson, Russell and Schopenhauer, and the Communism which inspires Ahmad was originally a theory developed by a German sitting in the British Museum in the mid -19th century. I felt that Mahfouz was perhaps too generous towards Communism; Ahmad and his equally radical girlfriend Sawsan are portrayed as attractively idealistic, and there is no attempt to contrast their idealism with the brutality of the Soviet regime which they uncritically support. ("Sugar Street" is set during the years when the Stalinist terror was at its height).

Reviewers have compared Mahfouz to a number of major writers; the two most often mentioned seem to be Tolstoy and Dickens. Both comparisons seem to me to be apt. The Egyptian writer shares with Tolstoy the ability to integrate political and philosophical themes into his work without seeming to preach and without interrupting the flow of his narrative. The tormented Kamal is a fascinating character even though, outwardly, little happens to him; the action is all internal as we watch the development of his character and his ideas. With Dickens he shares the ability to conjure up a vivid sense of a particular time and place, sharing with us the sights, sounds and smells of early 20th century Cairo just as the English writer did with those of 19th century London. With both writers he shares the ability to create a large cast of characters we can identify with and care about, however different their circumstances might be to our own. For those like me who are not familiar with Egypt or the Arabic-speaking world in general, "The Cairo Trilogy" acts like a window enabling us to see something of that culture.

I received this book as a Christmas present and when I saw the sheer size of it, I'll admit, I was frightened. For anyone who feels the same, don't let the fact that you could use this a weight put you off from reading it. You will be losing out on a magnificent work.
Mahfouz's trilogy pulled me into a world I know very little of and made me feel at home. I felt the fear the rest of the family did when Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad walked down the halls, banging his cane ahead of him. I read with anger and frustration, watching Yasin's transformation, or lack there of, and Kamal's.
Amina's growth and Aisha's destruction were an equally intriguing read. The fact that Aisha is unable to join her family and is forced to continue falling apart was a hard pill for me to swallow and ended up making me cry by the end of the novel.
Mahfouz is definitely a master storyteller who creates characters in one of the most realistic ways I have ever read. I will certainly be reading The Cairo Trilogy again.

I read this series because it was recommended by Jay Nordlinger of the National Review. Jay was right, and I highly recommend this trilogy series as well. I actually read each individual book to avoid the bulk of the complete series in one volume, but each one was a delight to read. Let's face it, modern fiction is dying a slow death with formula action-thrillers that are almost written in complete screenplay format from the start. The Cairo Trilogy, written over fifty years ago, is a throwback to the era of high-quality literature when authors took great pains to develop characters and scenarios so life-like the reader can actually feel like a participant.

In a foreword to a recent edition of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, the editor of that book mentioned that Arabic is one of the most difficult languages to translate into English. Despite a few minor anachronisms, the translation here of Mahfouz's work is almost seamless.

This is a beautifully written story of a middle-class Egyptian family from late WW I to the end of WW II, dealing with issues that in some ways are not so different from those we face in modern Western culture, but with the distinct differences brought about by the Muslim, Eastern culture and the political and cultural turmoil that existed in Egypt at that time. The story is filled with the drama and tragedy that make for great fiction, and you will get to know the characters so well that you will feel their joy and their pain. This is truly a worthwhile reading experience.

Naguib Mahfouz has been compared with Tolstoy and perhaps he is worthy of that, but a more down-to-earth comparison is with Paul Scott, who wrote "The Raj Quartet" series about the British experience in India during WW II. Both these works are rare examples of great literature from the post-WW II period when the novel as a literary art form was starting its slow decline to what we have today.

Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy is an absolute classic. With an unrivaled literary style, Mahfouz succeeds in bringing human life with all its complexity in simple, and unphilosophical terms. Mahfouz has a take on human nature, but what distinguishes him from others is that it's through the words and actions of the characters in his novel that we are able to see this profound knowledge of human nature, and not through the use of heavy symbolism. Mahfouz, in his Cairo Trilogy expresses a deep philosophy of life, captured in Egyptian society, in simple and intriguing writing.

In short, the Cairo Trilogy is a philosophical page-turner.

I bought this book because I wanted to try a novel by a Nobel prize winner whose native language was not English. I was rather daunted by it's size - but it caught me in it's web immediately. Mafouz is a spinner of tales that kept my attention totally. His book brought Cairo to life in much the same way as DIckens brought London to life in the last century. His characters are believable and are brought to life by the minutiae of their lives.

The translation seems excellent - judging by the fact that it is impossible to tell that the original language was not English.

I also should mention the excellent preface which sets the scene and the historical context and unlike a lot of prefaces was actually worth reading!

If you have any interest in reading about Cairo or in exploring this writer's work - get this book!