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Title: THIEF AND THE DOGS, THE by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0-385-26461-5 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 20 September, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting Mixture
Comment: This novel, by one of the world's premier fiction writers (Nobel Prize, 1988), is an interesting combination of Western and Middle-Eastern traditions. The prose style is a mixture of Camus' "The Stranger", Hesse's "Siddartha", and Graham Greene's "A Burnt-Out Case". There is a hard-boiled aspect that reminds the reader of Graham Greene's best "entertainments" and a philosophical strand similar to the French existentialists. Mix in a little Sufist wisdom and Egyptian scenery, and you've got a rather interesting literary mixture.

I advise any fan of world literature to give it a try. It's short and fast-paced, so the time investment will only be a day or two.

Rating: 3
Summary: The beginning of a New Direction
Comment: After "The Beginning and the End" Mahfouz presented his trilogy, one of the best novels of the 20th century Egypt. Then he started writing this strange novel. It is nothing like any of his old novels. It is, in fact, the beginning of a new direction in his writing.

There were many directions in Mahfouz's writing. He started first with short stories, then moved to historical novels, and then settled with usual romances. And here, in the beginning of this new direction, he starts writing pointless stories. I do not mean in the bad sence, what I really mean is a story beginning in a certain setting, with rich characters, but with the strangest ending. It might not be the worst of his writing but I just do not like open or not consistent endings. And by no means, does that mean that the novel is bad

I, as a matter of fact, liked it. I even enjoyed, it is the style that I could not comprehend completely. 3 stars with Mahfouz mean 5 stars with other. When I give it 3 stars I mean it was very good, but I cannot give it 5 stars because in this case I would say it was as good as "The Trilogy," which is not the case.

In this story we see a prisoner getting out of jail full of revenge ideas. His wife betrays him, his daughter no longer recognizes him, and he has only three refuges are: a corrupted friend of his who is working as a journalist, a religious old man his father used to visit frequently, and a wretched girl he used to know before his imprisonment.

Then Mahfouz continues developing this character, with all the feelings and mishaps.

The story was, I cannot emphasize enough, interesting and enlightening, yet not my type. You might want to give it a try, but I recommend "The Trilogy" for starters.

Rating: 4
Summary: A very dry read
Comment: In The Thief and the Dogs; Naguib Mahfouz explores some of the disappointments in the failure of the revolution to bring real change. His characters live in a world rich in emotional and political colour. Anyone can identify with their dilemmas, their passions and their frustrations. The Thief and the Dogs deals with the experience of Said Mahran, a burglar and smalltime political activist who goes to jail before the revolution in 1952 and emerges four years later to find the world he used to know has completely changed. Both in personal and political terms Said feels betrayed: his wife has married his old sidekick Ilish, and his former political mentor Ra'uf has given up his student radicalism for a comfortable job with a newspaper.