I absolutely loved the first volume (Palace Walk) of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, of which this is the third volume. The writing in this book is just as good (Mahfouz won the Nobel prize for literature.), yet somehow, the characters did not engage my interest the way the ones in the first volume did.
From the back cover:
"...he shows us Egyptian colonial society in all its complexity;...he makes us look through the vision of his vivid characters and see people and ideas that no longer seem so alien."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviewers called it "One of the most enjoyable books of recent memory." It just didn't reach those heights for me.
From the back cover:
"...he shows us Egyptian colonial society in all its complexity;...he makes us look through the vision of his vivid characters and see people and ideas that no longer seem so alien."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviewers called it "One of the most enjoyable books of recent memory." It just didn't reach those heights for me.
A remarkable inter generational story by Nobel laureate, Mahfouz set in an Egypt that we would no longer recognize.
This trilogy was very well-written (well-translated, too!) and gives a very interesting insight into a Moslem family's life in the early 20th century Egypt. I definitely recommend.
