The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
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The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library) Customer Reviews
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A Window on Another Culture
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Naguib Mahfouz's "The Cairo Trilogy" is a family saga set against the Cairo of the first half of the twentieth century, from approximately 1917 to the mid 1940s. It was (like Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings") originally written as a single novel, but published as a trilogy for commercial reasons. The three volumes into which it is divided, however, do read like self-contained novels in their own right. The first, "Palace Walk", covers the late 1910s, the second "Palace of Desire" covers the mid to late 1920s and the third, "Sugar Street", chronicles the events of the thirties and forties. The titles of each part are taken from three streets in Cairo in which the characters live.
The main character is the paterfamilias Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, a well-to-do Cairo merchant who leads a strange double life. To his family he is a devout Muslim, a stern husband and father who imposes a strict discipline. His wife Amina is virtually confined to the family home; when she courts her husband's displeasure by daring to go out to visit, a few streets away, the shrine of an Islamic saint whom she reveres, the incident nearly ends in divorce. Yet there is another side to Ahmad. Away from his family he frequents houses of ill repute where he enjoys the company of women (he keeps several mistresses), drinking alcohol and other pleasures forbidden to him by his religion. We also meet Ahmad's sons- the irresponsible playboy Yasin, Fahmy, an idealistic Wafdist (Egyptian nationalist) who loses his life during a demonstration against British rule, and the young Kamal- and his daughters Khadija and Aisha, who are also very different in character. Aisha is beautiful and gentle like her mother, but is fated to have a tragic life. Khadija is less attractive, sharp-nosed and sharp-tongued, and initially worries about finding a husband. In the end, however, she makes as good a marriage as her sister (they marry a pair of brothers).
In "Palace of Desire" Kamal, who was only a mischievous schoolboy in "Palace Walk", starts to emerge as a major character. He falls passionately in love with Aida, the beautiful sister of a friend, but the relationship is destined to end unhappily as her wealthy, aristocratic parents do not regard the schoolmaster son of a shopkeeper as their social equal. Disappointed by the failure of this relationship, Kamal, once as idealistic as his older brother Fahmy, becomes a disillusioned cynic, losing both his idealism and his Islamic faith. He becomes obsessed with the study of philosophy, which he believes will enable him to understand the meaning of life, but this goal eludes him; all philosophy seems to teach him is that such an understanding is unattainable.
Kamal remains an important character in the third volume, "Sugar Street"; he has the chance to marry Aida's equally beautiful younger sister Budur, but does not do so, largely because he has grown used to a bachelor existence and fears that, if married, he would have less time for the philosophical problems which have come to obsess him. His father, however, by now elderly and in poor health, fades into the background in this book. The third generation, in the shape of Abd al-Jawad's grandsons, starts to play an important role. Yasin's son Ridwan is a homosexual who becomes the lover of an influential politician. (This must have been a daring theme in the Egypt of the 1950s when the book was written). Khadija's sons Ahmad and Abd al-Munim are committed followers of two very different ideologies, the first becoming a Communist and the second a Muslim fundamentalist.
Of these two ideologies, Mahfouz tends to devote more time to Communism. In 1957, the future of Egypt and the wider Arab world may well have seemed to consist of a choice between Communism and the secular nationalism espoused by the likes of President Nasser in real life and Fahmy and Kamal in the novel. Mahfouz, however, was to have a long life, dying last year at the age of 95, and was doubtless surprised to see the resurgence of religious fundamentalism during his lifetime, while Communism never won widespread support in the Muslim world and eventually withered even in its Soviet and Eastern European strongholds. Had Mahfouz been able to predict these developments, he might well have paid more attention to Abd al-Munim and his ideas.
One of the themes of the trilogy is the conflicts and contrasts between the Egyptian values and those of the West, especially Egypt's attempts to free itself from the influence of Britain (which remained pervasive even after the country had officially become independent in 1932). Westernised characters such as Aida and her family and contrasted with more conservative ones such as Abd al-Jawad. (Even he, however, becomes more liberal later in life, even allowing his wife to go out freely). It is notable, however, that apart from Abd al-Munim the most politically nationalistic characters are all strongly influenced by European thought. The philosophers who most influence Kamal are Westerners such as Bergson, Russell and Schopenhauer, and the Communism which inspires Ahmad was originally a theory developed by a German sitting in the British Museum in the mid -19th century. I felt that Mahfouz was perhaps too generous towards Communism; Ahmad and his equally radical girlfriend Sawsan are portrayed as attractively idealistic, and there is no attempt to contrast their idealism with the brutality of the Soviet regime which they uncritically support. ("Sugar Street" is set during the years when the Stalinist terror was at its height).
Reviewers have compared Mahfouz to a number of major writers; the two most often mentioned seem to be Tolstoy and Dickens. Both comparisons seem to me to be apt. The Egyptian writer shares with Tolstoy the ability to integrate political and philosophical themes into his work without seeming to preach and without interrupting the flow of his narrative. The tormented Kamal is a fascinating character even though, outwardly, little happens to him; the action is all internal as we watch the development of his character and his ideas. With Dickens he shares the ability to conjure up a vivid sense of a particular time and place, sharing with us the sights, sounds and smells of early 20th century Cairo just as the English writer did with those of 19th century London. With both writers he shares the ability to create a large cast of characters we can identify with and care about, however different their circumstances might be to our own. For those like me who are not familiar with Egypt or the Arabic-speaking world in general, "The Cairo Trilogy" acts like a window enabling us to see something of that culture.
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