I bought this book a while back for reasons I can't remember now, but it's the most recent choice for the Slaves of Golconda book
group and so high time I read it. The novel tells the stories of
multiple characters, none of whom could really be called the
protagonist, since the narrative spends similar amounts of time with
each story. It's the Yacoubian building that holds all the stories and
the novel itself together. The Yacoubian building contains apartments
that house people of many different backgrounds and classes, so through
their stories we get a glimpse into various parts of Egyptian culture
and experience.
There's more than the building that holds the
novel together; there is also a simmering frustration with Egyptian
society and government that plays a part in many if not all of the
stories. Taha, for example, finds himself unable to fulfill his dream of
entering the Police Academy because of favoritism and corruption and
soon joins a militant Islamic group. Busayna discovers that the only way
she can support herself and her family is by allowing male employers to
take sexual advantage of her. Zaki falls victim to his conniving sister
who evicts him from his own apartment by getting the police on her
side. Money, family, and connections are everything, and without them,
there is little one can do to change one's fate. It helps very much not
to be a woman as well.
I admired the range of stories (not that
there are all that many main narrative threads, maybe a handful) and
subject matter they explore, from political corruption to workplace
exploitation, religious devotion, family dynamics, sexuality, con men,
drug dealing, torture, and falling in love. It's a lot to cover in 250
pages, and Al Aswany does it admirably, giving us a feel for life in
Cairo. I was grateful for the list of characters and their descriptions
included right before the novel's opening because the frequent switching
from story to story got distracting at times, and the guidance was
helpful.
I was never fully immersed in the novel, another
function, I'm sure, of the jumps from character to character. But there
were rewards to compensate for this, especially the overview of Egyptian
society the multiple stories offered and the economy with which Al
Aswany captures a rich sense of his characters' lives. The narrator
seems to withhold judgment, portraying the characters' virtues and
failings with equanimity. He seems interested more in understanding why
people are the way they are rather than in judging them for what they
do. It's possible to find this narrative style flat and affectless, but I felt an undercurrent of compassion that at times is powerful.
I like your comment that "he seems more interested in understanding why people are the way they are rather than in judging them" -- that's something I felt too, that there's a kind of holding back. Maybe this is a problem, as Stefanie suggests, in that there's a kind of passivity in the characters too, but I can see how that is connected to their life under a regime that is so corrupt and oppressive.
ReplyDeleteI think he does a good job at showing how corruption in the way government and society runs affects people and changes them frequently for the worse. I think I might have liked the book better if the structure had been different, if it had been written as a series of interconnecting stories instead of a novel that jumps around because I didn't find the premise of the building to be enough to hold everything together as a novelistic narrative.
ReplyDeleteRohan -- passive is a good word to describe much about the book. I suppose that "holding back" can get him in a bit of trouble, since it's unclear what his own stance is at points. The passivity in the characters makes sense -- when they AREN'T passive (such as Taha), their story ends badly.
ReplyDeleteStefanie -- interesting point about a series of interconnecting stories. I wonder what that would have felt like. It would probably have allowed me to feel more immersed in the story and perhaps to be more emotionally involved.