A powerful story of lust, greed and murder. Unflinching, tough, and dramatic, The Search was most certainly intended to be a harsh criticism of Post-Revolution morality, but, on its most elemental level, it is a lurid and compelling tale.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A lesser effort by Nobel laureate Mahfouz (the Cairo Trilogy), this 1964 novel is an indictment of what the author sees as the erosion of morality in post-revolution Egypt. The imprisonment and financial ruin of Basima, a prostitute, lead to her premature demise. Her spoiled son, Saber, a good-for-nothing playboy, is now in a pickle (``I must either work or kill''), so he follows his mother's deathbed instructions and searches for the father he thought was deceased, hoping to leech onto him and thus maintain the high standard of living to which he has grown accustomed. He moves from Alexandria to Cairo, where he advertises in the newspaper for his father who continually eludes him, and leads a duplicitous existence with two women. Gentle, naive Elham, a clerk at the newspaper's ad office, falls in love with Saber. But Saber, in turn, lusts for Karima, a manipulative woman married to Saber's landlord, who is many years her senior. Karima perfectly fits the whore's son's picture of the opposite sex: ``They were beautiful, savage beings looking for love and passion, without principles or scruples.'' With overwrought plot and prose, Mahfouz delineates Saber and Karima's obviously doomed scheme to murder the landlord, take the money and run.
Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Language Notes
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Search for Mahfouz,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Search (Paperback)
Naguib Mahfouz is probably one of the most controversial and prominent writers the Arab world has ever known. His novels give a vivid and intimate depiction of life in his native Egypt. Some have said that reading one of his books is just like sitting at a maqha (coffee house) in Alexandria. All this can be seen very clearly in one of his best novels ever "The Search". In it we are told the story of Saber el Reheimy, a man torn between a dark past and a hopeless future. His mother was a prostitute. Right before she dies she tells him that his father is still alive (ok...not the most original idea in the world, but nevertheless makes for an interesting story). He goes out to search for his father but instead finds something else, himself. The story is quite exhilarating; I was not able to put it down until the end (which by the way was highly unexpected).
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Trite Beginning Leading to An Original Ending,
By
This review is from: The Search (Hardcover)
Here again is Mahfouz sunk in the depth of this new phase of his, the phase that started with "The Theif and The Dogs" followed by "Autumn Grocer Quail," non of which I liked that much.In this one, I think, Mahfouz mastered this new writing disciplin of his. Now he knows what he wants to do and what to say, and he pretty much did a good job. This story, I feel, combines elements from this and the previous phases (The privious phase was the one ending with the Trilogy). It is a romance, and is a deep study of the psychology of Egyptians. The story starts with a prostitute/pimp mother revealing to her son that his father was still alife and is a wealthy man. Then she dies. The boy starts "The Search" for his father, which is the title of the novel. The real Arabic title was "The Road." The story from this point on takes a different turn. You would think that the story is only conserned with the search for the father. I think what Mahfouz wants is the search for the identity. I think this is a story of how a man can be both a villain and a magnanimous. How a man can both enjoy a platonic love and indulge in an animalistic sexual relationship in the same time. Mahfouz does a great job describing the feelings of a suspicious man, and how this might lead him to a point from where he cannot return. How a man can hate the same person he used to love, or on whom his life depended. The story is worth reading, and is one of the best I read. If you already like it, why don't you try "Midaq Alley" and "The Trilogy." For more reviews about Mahfouz's books, please strike the blue "a_mathematician" below the title of this review, and enjoy.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Battle between good and evil.,
By
This review is from: The Search (Paperback)
A man born in a luxury brothel is asked by his mother, a madam, to search for his father. During the search he meets two women : the unselfish Ilhaam and the provocative Kariema, who is married to a much older man. The man is torn between the two: Ilhaam, a reflection of his father - a promise and a dream difficult to become true- and Kariema, a reflection of his mother - sensual pleasure and criminal practices. Kariema asks him to kill her husband and to marry her. In the meantime the search for his father continues.A thrilling story, sensually written.
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