Sesheps, The Great Sphinx of Giza(November 28) This is a cool little book -- a kind of puzzle or mystery à la Roshomon (I think -- I've never seen the movie) in which four points of view of a chronicle of events provide partial details of what "really" happened. By the time I got to the fourth point of view, that of Abbas Younis, the pivotal character, I was quite anxious to know the "truth." The other narrators are clearly unreliable -- but you are never sure just how unreliable -- and their own doubts and guilts and biases complicate the suspense.
Of course, what "really" happened is what each character experienced; there is no single point of view that does not have its blind spots.
"Wedding Song" is the name of a theatrical play that affects all the characters, and it is also a play on words that has meaning for Cairenes (I think). But, to me, the title reflects the fact that the four points of view are all driven by the characters' first true loves -- or, rather, by the subsequent disillusionment, disappointment, self-delusion and (in the case of the fourth and happiest relationship) death that resulted from the few happy moments of exhilarating love -- and that these love-graphs shape everything the characters see and do and believe. There are four different "wedding songs" here: each one starts beautifully but becomes a dirge in the end.
I love how the same conversations are revisited from each point of view (not always what you get in murder mysteries or narratives that feature rehashes (like The Woman in White, e.g.)). It is amazing the nuances that can be brought to the same set of words by four different people.
Mahfouz paints a portrait of Cairenes as people who are extremely sensitive to "corruption" -- they vehemently despise vices such as drinking, gambling and extramarital sex, but they are ineluctably drawn to them all the same. They are heroes who believe themselves villains, and they are utterly charming.
Of course, what "really" happened is what each character experienced; there is no single point of view that does not have its blind spots.
"Wedding Song" is the name of a theatrical play that affects all the characters, and it is also a play on words that has meaning for Cairenes (I think). But, to me, the title reflects the fact that the four points of view are all driven by the characters' first true loves -- or, rather, by the subsequent disillusionment, disappointment, self-delusion and (in the case of the fourth and happiest relationship) death that resulted from the few happy moments of exhilarating love -- and that these love-graphs shape everything the characters see and do and believe. There are four different "wedding songs" here: each one starts beautifully but becomes a dirge in the end.
I love how the same conversations are revisited from each point of view (not always what you get in murder mysteries or narratives that feature rehashes (like The Woman in White, e.g.)). It is amazing the nuances that can be brought to the same set of words by four different people.
Mahfouz paints a portrait of Cairenes as people who are extremely sensitive to "corruption" -- they vehemently despise vices such as drinking, gambling and extramarital sex, but they are ineluctably drawn to them all the same. They are heroes who believe themselves villains, and they are utterly charming.
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