120 of 128 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fantastic Book...and a word of caution., August 22, 2006
Bad news first:
I found this book a little difficult to get into for a couple of reasons. One, I am not at all familiar with landscape of Egypt. Second, although I am marrying an Egyptian, and have somewhat of a familiarity for Arabic names, it was still a bit confusing to keep track of each of the characters -- especially with most of them having a nickname or title attached to their name in various parts of the story. I found myself having to back track during the first 30 or so pages to keep each character straight, which was a bit frustrating for a seasoned reader with a supposedly high comprehension level. I know, I know: what should I expect from a book translated from Arabic, about Arabic people, and taking place in an Arabic world? Still, I thought that it merited a warning...
Good news:
This was still an absolutely gripping novel. For those like me who may struggle with the names or places and get a bit frustrated in the initial pages, the story is well worth it. I was soon immersed in the lives of the characters, and began to care for them as if I knew them personally. I was able to relate it to what I know of Egyptian culture, and it opened my eyes to aspects of the culture which I have not personally seen.
In the larger scope of things, it really makes you think about the political/religious/ethnic and just general social issues that surround us. It allows one to think outside of the box and experience a life or lives that you ordinarily would not be able to. Although very sad in parts, it also contained great happiness, and allows you to truly see a beautiful culture at its best, at its worst, at its most twisted, and at its most innocent. A very honest, and very enthusiastic 5 stars.
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92 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mahfouz Revisited and Egypt Updated, April 14, 2005
Alaa Al Aswany is a social realist writer of Egypt with a style and a methodology not unlike that of Naguib Mahfouz. The difference is, however, that he portraying Egypt in the long term aftermath of the Free Officers' coup de etat, the Arab nationalism of Gamal Abd al-Nasir and its social reforms, and years of corrupt emergency rule. All in a country where the relevance of the Arab nationalism of the 1950's and 1960's is in the past, and largely irrelevant to the real life lives of the Egyptian people.
The title, and the building which is the foci of the novel, is a name and a building with non-Egyptian/Arabic name and an origin in a more cosmopolitan and liberal Egypt of the past. The characters represent various sorts of Egyptian personality types in the downtown area: a rich homosexual, a potential aristocrat of the old pre-Nasir regime lapsed into decadence and stagnancy after falling from relevancy in the new regime, a rich "self made" owner of a chain of stores, one of which is in the ground floor of the Yacoubian Building, and on the roof, representatives of the new and also very poor Egypt: a young woman whose father has died and thus is forced to take a job which includes paid sexual harrassement to support her family, the son of the doorman who is dilligent in his studies and preparations to become a police officer, a servant in the building who is renting a shack on the roof of the building so he can set up a shirt-making store, and others.
What all these characters have in common is that each character makes some sort of dramatic leap from the status quo character portrayed the begining of the novel to some fate, either more promising or resulting in the character's fall from some sort of interim grace. It seems to me that Al Aswany believes that the 50 years of dictatorial rule in Egypt and the 10 years of emergency rule (the novel takes place in 1990) under Mubarak, caused all of the segments of the Egyptian society to become corrupt and decadent. By showing various sorts of Egyptians of various socioeconomic classes, regional origins, and religions, he attempts to illustrate how the country's dictatorial regime has forced and continues to force every slice of the society into corruption, stagnancy, decline and/or decadence.
When the book opens its milleau to us, it is assumed that this dictatorial/decadent/stagnancy state-of-beirng, and mind, has gone on for a long time, for as long as any one can relevantly remember.
Each character represents a different philosophical response to this state-of-stagnancy and an eventual attempt to deal with it. Either to overcome it through love and real interpersonal engagement, or to continue on the same road of decadence and stagnancy, which ultimately leads to the death of the character which is an allegory for Egypt and Egyptian society, honest hard work and dilligence which is thwarted by the corruption and class system of the regime leading that character to first an abstract idealism, and that idealism to his death, another character thinks he can outmanuever the true powers-that-be in the regime, only to discover that he is just as powerless and leverageless against the regime as any of the other less powerful, less influential, or less wealthy characters.
I liked this book but would have trouble understanding it if I had never been to Egypt and was not familiar with either Cairo, the history of Egypt and the evolving urban landscape of Cairo, and Egyptian society. Although the book has literary merit, its primary interest would either to Egyptians and other Arabs, who could "fill in the blanks" not discussed in the novel itself, or people interested in Egypt and its own cultural responses to its current condition. Also, the literary merit of the book is only relevant from the point of view of someone either part of or interested in Arab culture, Egyptian society, and the current state of things in the Arab world. That is why I gave it four starts.
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