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Rating: 
Summary: Book Review: The Beggar
Review: "And since there's no revelation in our age, people like you can only go begging." (p 76)
"Poetry is the other voice, Octavio Paz wrote, "Not the voice of history or of anti-history, but the voice which, in history, is always saying something different"."Something different". Is a poet, therefore, an innocent bystander or chronicler of momentous events? Always assertive with his/her judgements, an ideal jury of our civilisation? In Mahfouz's THE BEGGAR, the poet is represented by Buthayna, the protagonist's daughter. "She's a beautiful girl, intelligent, studious, refined, poetic" (p 73). She's also an inquirer, not afraid to ask the dark, almost rude questions of life ("There's no other woman?" p75) There's another poet in this book, of course, a former one. Omar, our protagonist, is a successful, wealthy lawyer living in Cairo ("You virtually forgotten how to walk. You eat the best food, drink good wine..." p 10) who may (or may not) be suffering from what is commonly called as a 'bourgeois disease'. His condition is agonizing and paralyzing, and he wants a prescription to cure this disease. "The important thing is to understand life," was the medical advice given to Omar by his doctor friend Musthapa. To understand life? I must confess, this must be one of the most beautiful, thought-provoking novel I've read. I absolutely loved this one- people outside Read Literature circle should experience this little known masterpiece. No, this is absolutely not a Moby Dick of Merville- with an exciting narrative, packed with memorable, captivating characters, locations and story-line. The magic of this novel can be felt not after but during the experience of reading it- when you are constantly reminding yourself "This is me, this is my age, I can see myself here." Yes, you can see yourself as Omar- sinful, tough, insensitive, womaniser, human. Or Buthayna. Or Zeinab- martyr, loving, forgiving, accomodating, human. But this, above all, is a novel of loneliness, yearning and alienation. As John Rodenback said of the book, "(This) is a complex and passionate outcry against irrelevance and against what is likely to follow- alienation." I give it four stars
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome! But I don't know if it's good translated
Review: I actually only read "The Thief and the Dogs" and I loved it! The story was thought provoking and the sequence was logical and filled with suspense. The only thing that you should worry about is that I read the story in its original Arabic version. Therfore, I can't guarantee that same level of suspense here. However, I also did not read the translated version so I can't make a proper judgement about it. The only thing I could say that "Al-los wal kilab" or "The Theif and The Dogs" is a true classic . One that will be remembered for generations and generations. Truly a wonderful masterpiece!
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Summary: Socio-political impact from the Revolution
Review: The underlying theme in the Trilogy details with courage and delicacy the crisis of identity and conscience suffered by the Egyptian intellectuals during the period of malice and dissatisfaction. It is a nice read for anyone wanting to understand the fame of mind of Egyptian society at that time.
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