Naguib Mahfouz
Paperback | Pages: 286 pages Rating: 3.85 | 8756 Users | 903 Reviews
Particularize Books Toward Midaq Alley
| Original Title: | زقاق المدق |
| ISBN: | 0385264763 (ISBN13: 9780385264761) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Cairo(Egypt) |
Narration During Books Midaq Alley
Never has Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz's talent for rich and luxurious storytelling been more evident than in Midaq Alley, which centers around the residents of one of the hustling, teeming back alleys of Cairo. From Zaita the cripple-maker to Kirsha the café owner with a taste for young boys and drugs, to Abbas the barber who mistakes greed for love, to Hamida who sells her soul to escape the alley, these characters vividly evoke the sights, sounds and smells of Cairo. Long after one finishes reading, the smell of fresh bread lingers, as does the image of the men gathering at the café for their nightly ritual. The universality and timelessness of this book cannot be denied.Declare Containing Books Midaq Alley
| Title | : | Midaq Alley |
| Author | : | Naguib Mahfouz |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 286 pages |
| Published | : | December 1st 1991 by Anchor Books (first published 1947) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Northern Africa. Egypt. Novels |
Rating Containing Books Midaq Alley
Ratings: 3.85 From 8756 Users | 903 ReviewsDiscuss Containing Books Midaq Alley
I'm alway impressed how he writes and describes the places and characters with all these authentic details, but I did not like the novel itself.Midaq Alley could be any small, familiar place like a small town one grew up in, or the neighbourhood of his youth. Here, it is a street in Cairo, Egypt and the story is set sometime during the second world war. Originally written in Arabic, its main charm is that it takes the reader to where he has never been before: a small street, in the heart of the Arab world, at the time when his parents, or maybe grandparents, were just small boys and girls.Some novels the reader grapples with. This one
I can see why it is called Mahfouz's best novel (although I personally like his 'Children of the Alley' more). It has a large number of well-developed and complex characters built with great psychological insight. The Egypt of second world war comes alive in these pages. The lower middle class characters - barbers, sweet shop owners etc which populate the book are very much like people belonging to similar classes that I have met in India. Their psychology, their motivations which Mahfouz draws
Midaq Alley is written by Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer who has also written The Cairo Trilogy and Arabian Nights and Days. He has won the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature and is one of the leading Arabic writers, forcing the world to consider Middle Eastern literature seriously. He writes about his homeland, Egypt, and the people that inhabit it. He has been influenced by many Western writers including Flaubert, Zola, Camus, Dostroyevsky, and Proust. This story follows the lives of the
I love reading novels written by my favorite authors. So familiar and comforting for me. Mahfouz's wise voice, and his profound understanding of the human condition, and of life, shines through the whole book like a light.
A snapshot of life in an alley of Cairo during the 1940s. The plot is vague because really the novel centres on the lives of the people who live in the alley, from the barber through to the professional cripple-maker. It is incredibly rich in detail and atmosphere and you really can feel that you are there, sympathising and getting angry on behalf of the characters. I enjoyed this a lot.
Probably 3.5 stars. The author creates memorable characters and atmosphere, and the individual stories are interesting, yet somehow it felt as if all the threads were not quite tied up.
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