Word: yacoubian
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After the huge success in 2002 of his first novel, The Yacoubian Building - another scathing examination of Egypt's malaise - Al Aswany is already drawing comparisons to the nation's Nobel literature laureate, Naguib Mahfouz. Such high praise may be a little premature: Mahfouz founded modern Arabic literature and wrote almost 50 novels over half a century. But Al Aswany - who continues to work on the side as a dentist in Cairo - does share the legendary author's talent for constructing simple stories about Egyptian life that convey universal truths in defense of human dignity. His writing tackles the most...
...from the barbs against Egypt's regime that flow from his characters' mouths, the author has expressed understanding, if not actual sympathy, for Islamic extremists, and has written explicitly about issues like homosexuality and abortion that had long been taboo in Arabic literature. One of the main characters in Yacoubian, for example, is the gay editor of a Cairo newspaper, who uses money to seduce a married Egyptian soldier desperate to feed his family. In Chicago, a female character visits a sex shop and there's a lengthy discussion of the merits of vibrators...
...Yacoubian Building, which sold some half a million copies and was adapted into a box-office hit starring Arab cinema's top actors, is a brilliant depiction of the troubles plaguing contemporary Egypt. The saga of the inhabitants of a downtown Cairo apartment building, it examines the historical, social and political vicissitudes that Al Aswany believes have left the country in a state of physical and moral ruin. One character, Zaki Bey, is the scion of an aristocratic clan, an Egyptian Romeo who uses his Yacoubian Building office for lecherous assignations, oblivious to the crumbling edifice around...
...defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. A longtime political columnist for the opposition newspaper Al-Arabi, he joined the nonviolent Kifaya! (Enough!) movement in 2004. He has been harassed by security police, and Islamic radicals have publicly denounced him. But despite the outward pessimism in Yacoubian and Chicago, Al Aswany strives to be optimistic about his country's future. He believes some progress has been made, thanks to the courageous efforts of Egyptian judges, teachers, journalists and bloggers in demanding greater freedoms. "Egypt is not the same country it was 10 years ago," he says, sitting...
...author resists any analysis of his writing, but he does not dispute that both of his novels end with a spark of hope. Yacoubian concludes with the hopefulness of Busayna's marriage - albeit to the dubious Zaki Bey. And Chicago ends with a similarly unexpected union. Perhaps this is Al Aswany's way of suggesting that Egypt, too, broken down as it may be, will continue its quest for renewal...