Old-timey Cairo

When my dear friends Lisa and Mariam up and moved to Cairo on me, I was envious, albeit not envious enough to drop everything and join them. I am fascinated by Egypt and its loooooong history, and how ancient Egyptian culture, Arab Muslim culture, and international globalism all come together there. (One thing I did learn from my favorite correspondents: there is a class of people who are "recyclers" and in the end virtually all trash ends up reused somehow.)

And yet, instead of reading about modern Egypt, I keep ending up with books that go back almost 100 years. This selection is by Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz: Palace Walk, the first in his "Cairo Trilogy." Published in the 1950s, the novel seemed (to me) as though it could have taken place at any time, until the war, a hope for German victory, and Australian occupiers arises. Even then, it took me at least another 100 pages until I realized that this was World War I, not II. And now, sheepish about my lack of knowledge of Mediterranean history during the World Wars, I am grounded in the novel itself.

Palace Walk takes the reader into the lives of an upper-middle class Cairene family. The husband is a tyrant to his family, but hedonistic and charming with his friends and the ladies. One son takes after his father (but doesn't know it), another is a serious law student, and the third a naive and rambunctious youngster. The daughters are sweet, dutiful, and largely reconciled to having their lives sheltered from the outside world. The younger is a ravishing blonde; the elder capable and caustic, but unfortunately plagued with a big nose which may or may not stymie their marriage options.

And then there is the mother, Amina. She suffers with a distant and stern husband, but over the years has forgotten that she is, compared to other Cairene wives, suffering indeed. Her world revolves around custom, routine, and her beloved family.

I'm two-thirds through the book (which is 500 pages long), and haven't quite figured out whether there is a strict plot and upcoming climax. It is in some ways more like the Tolstoyan life-of-a-family epics. But I guess Mahfouz has another 2 volumes to make his narrative arc. Regardless, it's a beautiful book, and very evocative in its depiction of the scenes and sounds of colonial Cairo.