The unending conflict between Faith and Reason is given intriguing fictional form in this uneven yet fascinating symbolic allegory by Egypt's 1988 Nobel Prize winner. Though it was originally serialized there in 1959, Mahfouz's deeply provocative novel never did appear in book form in his native country (a slightly expurgated version was brought out in Lebanon in 1967, and a previous English translation, under the title Children of Gebelaawi, was published in the US in 1981 by Three Continents Press). It's the story of the sons, descendants, and other rivals and successors of Gabalawi, a mysterious patriarch who rules over an alley in a motley neighborhood located somewhere between urban Cairo and a threatening nearby desert. Gabalawi, whose great wealth and sovereign power are reputedly ill-gotten, rules tyrannically over "his" people and especially over his five sons. When the management of Gabalawi's estate is entrusted to his youngest son Adham, and the latter is tempted, first by his disgraced older brother and then by his beautiful wife, to pursue secrets deliberately withheld from him, this Adam and his Eve are cast out from their paradisiacally favored status—and the novel's meanings begin to emerge. In the second of five sequential and related episodes, another Moses (Gabal) brings prosperity to a chosen few. Following him, the Christ-like Rifaa preaches scorn for material wealth—but nevertheless becomes the victim of the jealous stewards of Gabalawi's estate. A more militant popular leader, Qassem, reenacts the history of the prophet Mohammed. And, in the cryptic final sequence, the "magician" Arafa, whose arts and sciences are meant to rescue the alley's poor from servitude, becomes the pawn of local ruling authorities, with predictably ruinous results. Gabalawi's arbitrary power remains forever unbroken. Despite its frequent discursiveness, a rich, ambitious, and absorbing (though deeply pessimistic) work: further proof, if any were needed, that Mahfouz's magnificent storytelling powers are wedded to a daring and discerning criticism of life that places him among the greatest of 20th-century novelists.
Pub Date: Jan. 9, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-42094-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1995
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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