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Title: Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0-385-26470-4 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 15 December, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Unique window into Arabic culture and Arabic weltanschauung.
Comment: I do consulting in the refining and petrochemical industries and have, as a result, struck up several friendships with Arabs and Arab-Americans working in those facilities. Once I asked several acquaintances if there were are well-regarded Arab writers with good English translations available that could help me as an American better understand the modern Arab experience and worldview. Several recommended The Cairo trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street) by Naguib Mahfouz. It covers a time period that would provide an excellent overview into 20th century Arab experience both politically and socially, especially vis-à-vis Arab/Western interaction. It is a family saga and therefore provides a good view of modern Arab family life and the affects modernization has had on it. It's urban setting and action would be more familiar to Americans than a more rural tale. The books are written from a genuinely Arabic sensibility language-wise-a sensibility not overly degraded by translation. And, finally, it would be a "less difficult" introduction to Arabic culture than other possibilities.
It should be noted that "less difficult" is not that same as "easy" or "easier". This marks an important distinction, one underscored by these books. Arabic language, society and sensibilities are colored much more by nuances and multiple permutations on a few basic themes than is true in Western society.
Naguib Mahfouz is a Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist who adeptly and adroitly captures these nuances and evokes a genuine feel for-if not true understanding of-their intrinsic roots within the Arabic weltanschauung.
Clearly, based on the reviews to date for this book, there are many who have difficulty with this dynamic. These are the folks who probably are unable to split hairs and see the distinction between "less difficult" and "easier". If you are that sort of person I have to say quite honestly that you are going to be both frustrated and bored by this book or any of the series.
If you are the sort who relishes a challenge, truly wants to try to get a feel for and understand Arabic social and political views and don't mind putting a bit of effort into that undertaking, you will find reading any or all of these books a rewarding experience indeed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Same problems in living, just another spot on the globe
Comment: This is the last book of the Cairo Tilogy,which should stand along side of Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga.
As with any work that is squarely founded upon an extensive exposure and understanding of the human nature that is found throughout the world, the reader will find an Egyptian writer who sympathetically and deftly presents a family from the middle east, faced with the same problems that plagued English families throughout the victorian era and later.
Throw in the problems of occupation by the British to further complicate a father's problems with educating and marrying his sons, and insurinng the happiness of his daughters through marriage to fiscally sound and loving men from backgrounds similar to his family's, and the reader will realize we're all the same the world over. I was sorry to reach the end of the last book, and I'm jealous of anyone who is about to read the Cairo Trilogy for the first time.
Rating: 5
Summary: Recommended
Comment: 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.
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Title: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0385264666 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 December, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Journey of Ibn Fattouma by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0385423349 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0385423357 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 17 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Map of Love : A Novel by Ahdaf Soueif ISBN: 0385720114 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz ISBN: 0156006308 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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