Sugar Street [Paperback]

Naguib Mahfouz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Anchor Books (1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385403062
• ISBN-13: 978-0385403061
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,601,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Saga Continues, July 17, 2003

By 

Imperial Topaz (Marrakesh, Morocco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Paperback)

This is the third book in the Cairo Trilogy Series. By all means, do NOT try to read this book without having read Palace Walk or Palace of Desire FIRST--it would be like tuning in to a movie in the last half hour.

This book opens with the father and his wife in old age, in their 60's, their children in middle age, and the younger (third) generation entering their 20's. It continues the interesting saga. The book finishes shortly after both the father and his wife eventually die of old age.

This entire series is SLOW DRAMA (warning for those who like "action"), but one of the BEST pieces of literature I have ever read in my life. I have lived in the Middle East for 11 years, and this entire series REALLY shows the Middle Eastern culture and way of thinking.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Paperback)

Even some of the very best long novels or series rush somewhat disconcertingly towards a conclusion as though the writer is trying to tie up loose ends speedily and get on with life or the next project. But in Mahfouz's trilogy, the pace is perfectly matched to the time period. In Sugar Street, we are plunged into rapid social changes in Egypt during the thirties and the war -- tremendous upheavals in family structure, in women's roles, in politics, and not surprisingly in the lives of the characters. Someone wrote in these reviews that at least some of the characters suffered in unlikely ways. But this reviewer is probably not a surviver of a typhoid epidemic, or World War II, nor yet experiencing the delights and the disappointments of age. In my view, the Cairo Trilogy is a gem, and Sugar Street is a real pleasure. I may have to turn around and reread all three books before I can reshelve them.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended, April 10, 2004

By 

J. Jacobs - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Paperback)

The conclusion and final disintegration of the formerly powerful patriarchal family. Brings one through the third generation of tradegy, loss, and spiritual transformation and leaves almost every individual in misery. I enjoyed the first and final books in this trilogy and feel I came away with a better understanding of the conflicting forces at work in Egypt as well as the impact of culture and morality on individual actions and spirituality.