The Yacoubian Building: The International Bestseller - A Political Novel of Love and Loss in Modern Egypt

This is Egypt. Its past of glorified and often lamented early 20th-Century grandeur as well as its present of turbulence and increasing desperation and repressiveness are artfully laid out for the reader to analyze, contemplate and invariably pity in this impressive literary work. This is Egypt that everyone knows well but rather not talk about. The book captures the collective moral and physical destitution of the post-1970s Egyptian society like no other book has; at least none that I have ever read. The countrywide air of angst and despair is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The characters are drawn so skillfully and so realistically their pain is so intense and palpable it makes you wonder why it took so long for a revolution to erupt. Speaking of characters, this book is rife with a diverse set of characters that are rich with complexity and alive with nuance. The author did an extraordinary job in taking the reader on an unforgettable journey through both the most inexplicable and most banal in Egyptian mores. Each character represents a distinct reflection of Egypt herself. Her defiance, innocence, bitterness, lightheartedness, fanaticism, tolerance, softness, austerity, corruption, venality, hypocrisy, cowardice and hope. Allegory definitely weighs heavily in this work of fiction. Zaki Bey el Dessouki is an aristocrat and a francophile now living a shadow of his pre-1952-revolution posh life. He drowns his disillusion with reality in the pleasures of the flesh. Zaki is a living reminder of an era that was once promising and hopeful, until Nasser came. Zaki recounts, "Abd el Nasser was the worst ruler in the whole history of Egypt. He ruined the country and brought us defeat and poverty. The damage he did to the Egyptian character will take years to repair. Abd el Nasser taught the Egyptians to be cowards, opportunists, and hypocrites." Zaki embodies Egypt's murdered past of carefree and happy days. "Cairo was like Europe." He laments thinking of that time. "It was clean and smart and the people were well mannered and respectable ... What times! Every night was filled with laughter and parties and drinking and singing. There were lots of foreigners in Cairo. Most of the people living downtown were foreigners, until Abd el Nasser threw them out in 1956." His sister, Dawlat, is the complete opposite. Her caustic and vitriolic bouts or rage defined her character since her children abandoned her and emigrated. Her goal in life was to make her brother's life a living hell, and she succeeds in doing so. Dawlat represents a generation angry at the circumstances that led to the demise of their social standing; a generation so bitter and unhinged at what happened to them they either leave and forget about the old country or stay and unleash their wrath on everyone around them, including their loved ones. Then there is Taha and Busayna. Two kindred spirits torn apart by reality. These pivotal characters tell the core story of Egypt. Their pure love tainted by poverty and their dreams drowned by a culture defiled by venality, nepotism, sexism, and classism. That is, in a nutshell, the story of Egypt. And then of course, there is Hagg Azzam, a pious Muslim and a rich man who decides to join the Egyptian Parliament. The Arab world is rife with the likes of Hagg Azzam. They are the kings of hypocrites, the heads of opportunists and the leaders of cowards. They are the embodiment of the culture that's held Egypt and the Arab world hostage to a faulty religion. Oppressing people and robbing them and killing them, all the while praising God in a sickening expression of sinister piety. In an exchange between Hagg Azzam and an influential member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, the man says, "No Egyptian can go against his government. Some people are excitable and rebellious by nature, but the Egyptian keeps his head down his whole life long so he can eat. It says so in the history books. The Egyptians are the easiest people in the world to rule. The moment you take power, they submit to you and grovel to you and you can do what you want with them. Any party in Egypt, when it makes elections is in power, is bound to win, because the Egyptian is bound to support the government. It's the way God made them." Sadly, that was not a disillusioned perception of reality by the corrupt government. People did grovel. People did obey. The Egyptian psyche has been conditioned since Nasser took office to be subservient. This comes through in a correspondence between Taha and The President where Taha writes, imploring Mubarak to look into an injustice that has just befallen him. He goes on to say, "Your Excellency Mr. Presiden will see that your son ..." The submissive tone starts with the word "son." The use of "son" and "daughter" inherently suggests the fallibility and inferiority of the citizenry, like a child that's eager to please his parent. The government, in turn, uses the words "father of the people" to refer to the relationship between Mubarak and the Egyptian people. This sort of condescending rhetoric was used excessively by Mubarak prior to his ouster on February 11, 2011. Perhaps the most complicated character is that of Hatim Rasheed's, the token homosexual in this cast of "normal" people. Hatim is a successful, smart and good-natured man that lives in a society that considers him a pervert because of his sexuality. Hatim's lover, a simple rural man named Abduh, is a closeted homosexual with a wife and kid and illiteracy to boot. Hatim's tumultuous personal life offers the reader a glimpse of life for the educated liberals in Egypt. I can go on and on about every character in this book. They are definitely very rich and very well fleshed out, but I'll leave some of that for you to explore on your own. Reading this novel in the post-January-25th-revolution world makes me wonder about the fate of these characters in this "new" Egypt. Many of the the grievances expressed repeatedly by the author were what erupted the revolution. Will the likes of Hagg Azzam and his cohorts finally get thrown in jail once and for all? Will Taha's dreams be allowed to flourish? Will Hatim's too? Will Zaki be able to feel proud again? These are some of the questions you will be asking yourself as you're reading this book. It's very topical and extremely thought-provoking. The only gripe I have with this book is the the translation. It's at times awkward and almost inaccurate. Some nuances are lost, as it is with most translated works of literature. Being fluent in Arabic makes it easy for me to spot those errors, but they're probably a nonissue to the non-Arabic reader. Get this book and learn about the old Egypt, and when you're done, make a prayer that the new Egypt isn't anything like this.

The Yacoubian Building provides a glimpse into the complicated lives of residents of an Egyptian building. Set in the late 20th century Egypt, after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Yacoubian Building started filling up with people from Egypt's lower class, while some others from the upper and middle classes stayed put. This has given Al Aswany the opportunity to develop many interesting characters. There is a son of the doorman who struggles to make a career as a policeman, even after being good at his studies and what he does after that. His beautiful young girlfriend, who performs sexual favors for little money. A rich homosexual man, whose boyfriend moves into the building with his wife and kid. A religious old man with dreams of being a politician. His second wife, a divorced lady from a porer region of Egypt. A pre-Revolution single rich man whose life has declined dramatically after the Revolution. His girlfriends. His servant and his brother, a tailor by profession, who moves into the building. The lives of these characters overlap and interact with each other; but otherwise, this book "feels" like a collection of short stories. Please note that they are not separate stories though. Al Aswany's characters are well-developed and thought out in detail. The characters go through a change in their lives over the course of several events. The reasons compelling these changes are beautifully pointed out by the author: poverty, sexual desparation, corruption, failure in career, etc. Being translated from Arabic into English, the prose is not of high quality. Some of the sentences actually feel odd because of this. There are lots of references to Egyptian culture, but I never felt lost or confused (I am not an Egyptian or an Arab, or in any way related). Having never visited Egypt, I still understood the book well. (Of course, I had an interest in knowing more about the culture.) The X-Ray feature of Kindle is not enabled for this book. It would have been helpful to avoid referring to the glossary section at the back of the book. Still, it did not make the book overwhelming to read. Since the decade in which the book has been mainly set, Egypt has undergone lots of socio-political changes. Lives of common Egyptians has definitely changed. However, this book captures the late 1900s and the struggles in the lives of common people well. Overall, it is a good book to get a perspective on modern Egyptian culture.

This book was recommended to me by a Moslem friend who is both religious and moderate. She said that she had never understood why someone would become a terrorist until she read this account of Egyptian society. Her comments were right on target. This is a remarkable book. I was in Egypt almost exactly one year ago and the picture that emerges in the book reflects the world I saw. It makes it quite clear why there has now been a revolution in the country and what conditions have existed to create fundamentalists as well as political opportunists. I think that reading this book could be extremely useful to anyone who is trying to understand what is now going on in the Middle East. It takes you into a cross section of the country detailing the idealism which has been crushed and then turned towards fundamentalism as well as the secularism that has been so strong and useful in the society. I cannot recommend the book highly enough espcially at this point in history. It is aslo interesting to note that for several years this was a best seller in the Arab world. SETM

A story of post revolution Cairo and how the complexities of colonialism, politics, wealth, corruption, and religion play out in the lives of the residents of the Yacoubian Building. Whether the poor residents of the roof or the rich residents of the tower all are trying to find a path to a better life - but each path has a price, and sometimes that price is a life. Great use of character narratives to create sense of place and time.

Alaa Al Aswany's book The Yacoubian Buidling is an insightful look into modern day Cairo. It is not the most uplifting or happy book I have ever read, but I think Aswany was trying shed light on the city's less fortunate. The characters all suffer from the same troubles that humans have around world have, which makes it easier to identify with their plight. This book shows what it is like for the poor, working class, and those who used to be part of the upper class and how each is struggling to move up in society. Zaki Bey represents the upper class of Egypt before the 1952 Revolution. He studied to become an engineer in France, but once he returned his father had lost the majority of his wealth and political clout with the Revolution and the land reform. Thus, Zaki Bey spends his days drinking and pursuing women because he is not as motivated as his father. He misses the way Egypt used to be and one feels sorry for him right away and his character is similar to that of the building. He is beginning to fall apart and now he wishes he would have married and had a family when there was still an opportunity. The other characters in the story are also revealing. Hatim is a French newspaper editor, but he is also a homosexual who must be careful about revealing his identity. Aswany did a good job of building Hatim's persona, which shows what can happen to children who are neglected by their parents. Hatim is constantly striving for the love and approval he could never find when he was growing up with his lovers. He does not know what it means to let someone go if you love them, which may have dire consequence. I encourage you to read the book and see for youself. The only downside I would mention about this book is that the female characters are not as well developed as the male ones. It may be because Aswany is a man, but I have read novels about female characters that are very convincing and that written by men. Aswany give us a few insights into the females of Cairo, but there are only two major characters: Busayna and Souad. The others are only mentioned in a few passages or are not even given names at all. Overall this was a very informative and engaging book and I do recommend it.

Descriptions of life from Cairo, and a different culture. Mahfouz set his novel in a poor working-class district, seeking to portray the changes wrought by the second world war, and the British Eighth Army, to sexual morals and long-lived social traditions. The novel unfolds in the former European quarter downtown at the time of the 1990 Gulf war. The Yacoubian building itself is a once-handsome art deco block on the boulevard known now as Talaat Harb, but here called by its old name of Suleiman Basha Street. Built in 1934 for an Armenian millionaire, its fall from grace is just one aspect of Egypt's general dilapidation. The pashas, cotton millionaires and foreigners who occupied the apartments were all chased out at the coup d'état of 1952 and replaced by military officers and their country wives. The concessions that people have to make in their daily lives are explored.

I am now completely addicted to this author. His prose is beautiful and clear; I immediately understand all his many characters and their political, religious and personal lives. Through reading his books, I have grown to have a much better understanding of Egyptian culture and politics. In this tale, we follow the lives of various people who live and work in the Yacoubian building; some are rich and powerful, and some are poor and disenfranchised. As we read their interactions with the society and each other, we grow to like some, we immediately despise others, but they are all fascinating. I highly recommend this book.

Published in Arabic in 2002 and recently translated into English, this Egyptian novel intrigued me at once. First of all, the unique point of view is decidedly Egyptian, and this afforded me a wonderful opportunity to expand my understanding. It's a mere 253 pages and it certainly gave me a glimpse into a group of individuals and their trials, turmoil and loves as they go about their daily life. The book is well structured, too structured in fact, as it tells the story of several people who are each somehow changed by the end of the book. They all live in an apartment building in downtown Cairo, a Art Deco building whose glory days were fifty years ago. Here we meet a cross section of the residents. There's an aging gentleman who had many loves without once committing to a relationship, a young woman entering the real world of work, a devout young student who cannot resist the fundamentalism going on around him, a gay upscale newspaper editor in love with a soldier, a corrupt politician and his unfortunate second wife, and other various characters. Each of them has to deal with the constant escalating corruption and stratified class system. And each of them had hard choices to make. It all works out to show an interesting mosaic of Egyptian life. But yet something was missing. I understand the author's intention. He tried to be all things to all people. He tried to give us a sample of a wide variety of people and points of view. As a kaleidoscope of modern Egypt, the book succeeds. But I yearned for a more in-depth central story which would make me feel more emotion. This book is good and certainly worth exploring and I therefore recommend it for those interested in a fictional overview of Modern Egyptian life.