Hard on the first English trade publication of any of the 1988 Nobel prize-winner's fiction (The Thief and the Dogs, Wedding Song, and The Beginning and the End—not reviewed) comes this first volume of his celebrated Cairo Trilogy, written in 1952 and originally published in Arabic in 1956. The complete trilogy takes the family of al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad from WW I to the 1952 overthrow of King Farouk. The opening of this first installment finds pious, licentious al-Sayyid Ahmad ruling his family with an iron hand: his wife Amina passively accepts his nightly absences without any idea how much more gregarious he can be than the tyrant she knows; his sons Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal tremble in his presence and accept his orders without question even though they're aware of his sexual hypocrisy; his daughter Aisha forgoes a marriage proposal because her older sister Khadija hasn't been spoken for. But al-Sayyid Ahmad's authority is increasingly threatened—when he sends his wife away for making a forbidden trip outdoors in his absence, her sons send intermediaries to plead for her; Aisha is pressed to accept a second proposal; Yasin, bored with his arranged marriage, rapes his wife's servant; and Fahmy joins a nationalist group organizing against the British soldiers who lounge outside al-Sayyid Ahmed's house on Palace Walk—until finally he must accept the ultimate chastisement: one of his children is buried in a public ceremony, and not as his child. The leisurely pace of the long opening can be tough going, but Mahfouz gradually weaves his fractious family's history together with that of their troubled, splendid country with a mastery that recalls the Don saga of Mikhail Sholokov. The remaining volumes of the trilogy are due for publication on New Year's 1991 and 1992—reason enough for celebration.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1989
ISBN: 0385264666
Page Count: 510
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1989
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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