amaah
Berkeley
Sounds and sights of Egyptian neighbourhoods — 29 weeks ago
WORTH CONSUMING!
Sharply observed and family scale yet revealing of an entire society. The temptations of men, young and old, the role of women in society, the burden of that thing called honour and the distortions that it causes, the hypocrisies that religious strictures impose and the rationalizations that the flesh produce as coping mechanisms. It seems to me that “the Dickensian aspect” that many reviewers point to is beside the point, writers have always painted on broad canvases in pointillist fashion and Mahfouz is no different.