The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction

It is a book of short stories by many authors, so it is not suited for your rating system, though the stories are well written. For the most part, the stories relate circumstances which give a picture of people oppressed by governments or mores or poverty and with little relief. It feels despairing.

Rather than getting a true sense of each writer, what one gets is a mere glimpse. Most of the entries are just excerpts. And many of those excerpts are a stingy 3-4 pages long. It's like riding in a car and seeing a brief image as you pass by. The editor should have included fewer writers and given them space enough to have their work truly represented. Further, there is no organization that is obvious to my eye. I settle in too briefly with the prescient and modern vision of the Yemeni writer Abdul- Wali (deceased) then jump to the agitated voice of young Yahya Taher Abdullah (also felled before his time) then jump again through the sharp eye of social commentator Abouzeid and over two wisps from other writers before finding the Arabic Saki (Al Amir). Whew! All that in 23 pages. A whirlwind, for certain, but not what I was hoping for. Perhaps a vol 1 and vol 2 would have allowed space for greater inclusiveness without sacrificing content. This anthology is a great idea, but it needs to be re-thought and re-released.

The West has so little access to Arabic literature, and there are few translations available, except for perhaps a handful of writers. So this incredible collection is a much-welcomed -- and much-needed -- addition to my library. If we want to understand, and connect with, the Arab world, getting a glimpse into the culture is an important step, and this terrific collection goes a long way toward helping with that goal.

A great collection of short passages from recent fiction in the Arab world. A wonderful window into this culture and way of life.

Had to buy this for school, but ended up liking a lot of the stories.

Book in great condition.

I enjoyed this collection and was introduced to a great many writers I'd never heard of before, but I have a major complaint about this collections, and that was that the selections are too short. It would have been better to have half as many writers represented with longer selections. You don't really get a taste for a writer's style in 3-4 pages. This is more like dim sum, little bite-sized packets that whet the appetite but don't fill you up. It's a good idea, but there need to be fewer writers included.That said, I enjoyed these stories and novel excerpts. The range of styles and subject matter is impressive. Normally I'm a reader of science fiction and fantasy, but I like to read literary and contemporary works from time to time for something different. I wish more fantastic works had been included in this collection; one thinks of the collection "The Last Storytellers" from Morocco or Naguib Mahfouz's work "Arabian Nights and Days." The Middle East has a rich imagination, and I would have liked to have seen more djinnis, dancing girls, and arrogant princes included in this collection. Maybe that's another book? If you're looking for short bites from a lot of authors, this is your resource. You'll be exposed to the writing of a great number of writers and can decide whose writing to pursue independently from there. Good luck, and good reading!

This is a very comprehensive collection of modern Arabic language fiction, in English. My only complaint, if it could even be called that, is that some of them are not really short stories but chapters taken from popular novels. That in and of itself is not bad as it can inspire the reader to seek out the novel. The problem is that a couple of them seemed uprooted in that there was not enough background information.Some of these stories are political dealing with wars, partitions and colonialism. One deals with a so called honor killing, another the harshness of desert life, others with forbidden and lost loves, conflict between allegiance to custom and a desire for individual fulfillment. A few were satirical, like the excerpt from Alaa Al Aswany's The Yacoubian Building. This reminded me very much of Nawal El saadawi's Woman at Point Zero. A young woman with pride, principles, and a degree loses several jobs because she refuses to put out. Finally, one of her neighbors sets her straight by telling her to wise up and realize that her degree is useless and that putting out is part of every job, that the smart thing is to learn how to negotiate. What's daunting about this satire is that Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero was written in the 1970s and The Yacoubian Building is was written in the last few years. So, there hasn't been a lot of progress.