The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz

Nov 28, 2012 Roger DeBlanck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Whichever way a critic chooses to assess the three books that comprise The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street) one arrives at a similar conclusion: this is a magisterial work. At the level of sheer storytelling, the narrative is amazing in its depth and scope of chronicling various individuals over three generations in the al-Jawad family. For me, the most satisfying aspect of the three books is the cerebral insight in which Mahfouz investigates each major character t...more Whichever way a critic chooses to assess the three books that comprise The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street) one arrives at a similar conclusion: this is a magisterial work. At the level of sheer storytelling, the narrative is amazing in its depth and scope of chronicling various individuals over three generations in the al-Jawad family. For me, the most satisfying aspect of the three books is the cerebral insight in which Mahfouz investigates each major character throughout successive generations. The result is a family saga immensely rich in its range of personalities. Readers feel as though they are experiencing emotions through a kaleidoscope. Mahfouz astonishes with his ability to channel the intimate thoughts of each character in order to unveil their deepest secrets. He probes his characters’ minds like a psychiatrist performing clinical evaluations to determine the source of their actions and behavior. Moreover, Mahfouz penetrates the tantalizing matters of the heart. He gives us characters in their most human form: in both their pain and joy, through their hopes and despairs, and during their perils of love and loss.

The central figure spanning all three volumes is the imposing patriarch, Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. He dominates over his household with the authority of a tyrannical king. He presents himself as a man living up to the highest standards of religion and morality. By day, among his family he acts like a man of stern principles and devout prayer. Yet his hypocrisy is dually noted early on in the narrative, as he is also a man of uninhibited indulgence. By night, he carouses, drinks, and engages in adultery. He represents Mahfouz's quintessential literary focus on allegory, which is prevalent throughout most of the trilogy. Al-Sayyid Ahmad embodies someone who thinks he is free to do anything he wants without consequence, while at the same time he forbids others from the same behavior. In other words, Ahmad portrays himself as everything he is not, just as the historical backdrop of the trilogy shows how the free reign of British colonialism to do whatever it wants is anything but free of guilt.

Palace Walk, volume 1 of the trilogy, shifts gears from a family saga to a historical drama when Mahfouz begins to highlight the forces and events surrounding the Egyptian revolution against the British occupation. With extraordinary realism and visceral affect, he brings to life the sights, sounds, and motives of the populace to confront the injustices of colonialism. He inserts the al-Jawad family in the hub of this maelstrom. Of the five children of al-Sayyid Ahmad, it is the middle son, the idealist and erudite Fahmy, who falls victim to martyrdom, even as his father defies him not to pledge the rebellion of 1919. The oldest son, Yasin, is from Ahmad's first marriage, and he portrays the second generation figure whose misguidance perpetuates the same sins of debauchery as his father. Ahmad's two daughters are diametrical opposites both in appearance and demeanor. The older daughter, Khadjia, has unflattering features, yet she is full of energy and seemingly cursed with a flair for sarcasm and cheekiness. Her younger sister, Aisha, is a radiant blonde with a voice like a songbird, yet she is prone to languishing and reverie. The most compelling child is the youngest, Kamal. Prone to playfulness and lies, he is mischievous with inquiry about the world and fascinated with religious studies. Like all the siblings, Kamal is terrified of his father. Then there is the matriarch, Amina, a paragon of nurturing and caring. She does for her family what any ideal mother would do, and yet she suffers the duality of pretending to turn a blind eye on her husband's transgressions. Palace Walk takes readers through the daily struggles and joys of the family up until the 1919 nationalist revolution in which Fahmy loses his life.

In volume 2, Palace of Desire, the saga of the al-Jawad family recommences in 1924 with the British reaching a rapprochement with the widely popular Wafd leader, Sa'd Zaghlul. In this second volume, the fate of the next generation plays out. After several affairs and scandals, Yasin attempts to find monogamy with his second wife Zaynab, but again he fails to do so. Although she is the younger sister, Aisha is wed off to Khalil Shawkat, and shortly thereafter her older sister Khadija follows suit by having her marriage arranged to Khalil's much older brother, Ibrahim. The children of both these couples are in their infancy as this novel proceeds, but the most compelling figure in volume 2 is Kamal, the youngest sibling of al-Sayyid Ahmad and Amina. Now seventeen, Kamal has passed his exams to earn his baccalaureate. Against the wishes of his father, he insists on purposing philosophical truths and the search for meaning in an existential world. Kamal's disavowal of religion places him in conflict with his father, who pledges the fundamentalist tenets of Islam. As a free thinker catapulted into the field of modern science's quest for meaning and understanding, Kamal falls victim to despondency after he suffers from the agony of unrequited love. Palace of Desire focuses on Kamal's plight as the central figure of the second generation. His modernist vision of the world, as reliant on science and reason, reflects the Wafd Party's nationalist ideology of governing the nation free from the constraints of Islam as a political system. When the second book ends with the passing of the leader Sa'd, one sees the parallel between the painful end of an era and the pain Kamal feels with his own lofty hopes for love shattering around him.

By volume 3, Sugar Street, it is now 1935, and the third generation has become the focal point. This generation is most aptly depicted through the two polarizing figures of Abd al-Muni'm and Ahmad, the two headstrong sons of Khadija and Ibrahim. Abd al Muni'm grafts himself to the fanaticism preached by Shaykh Ali al-Munufi, a religious zealot devoted to the budding philosophy that the Quran's teachings should be implemented as a political system and code, even in the modern world. As leader of the Muslim Brethren, al-Munufi ensnares vulnerable young minds such as Abd al-Muni'm during a time in Egypt's history when the country's political turmoil continues to consume everyday society. On the opposing side of ideologies, Ahmad finds solace in following Adli Karim, the open-minded Editor-in-Chief of The New Man magazine. Karim views the Wafdists as the starting point of Egypt's national movement towards independence and democracy. He, however, believes the nation must go beyond developing social freedom. Ahmad latches onto Karim's ideas and supports the mission of The New Man to confront the fanatics while at the same time promoting scientific mentality. Both brothers heed the patriotic call for revolution and independence, yet both see entirely different ways of achieving liberation from British rule. With a host of other family characters, friends, and acquaintances to supplement this diversion of the brothers' philosophies, Mahfouz ultimately brings this grand trilogy to a summation with the government's mass crackdown on political activists on each side of the divide. The arrests of both Abd al Muni'm and Ahmad bring this monumental work to a close.

In its totality, Mahfouz uses the three novels of The Cairo Trilogy to chart Egypt's tumultuous history through the meditations of various family members with distinctively different perceptions on life. He achieves this by also exposing and confronting the ideologies of both repressive colonialism and radical Islam. What he creates in the process is a breathtaking work of vivacity and bustle. The trilogy is allegorical and literal in his depictions of the al-Jawad family as a microcosm for the subsequent historical eras that three generations of the family endure. What stands out to me in everything that Mahfouz accomplishes is that he offers us a vast array of characters that go beyond giving us insight to the emotional chambers of their hearts. He reveals to us the essence of their souls so that we might seek to turn a mirror on ourselves and examine what it is in each of us that yearns for a better understanding of humanity and what it means to be human.

Having read the trilogy as a singular work, I believe in order to gain full appreciation of the novels, it is important to read them together as one book. So much transpires and reading the books separately or out of sequence may prevent one from experiencing the significance Mahfouz assigns to certain characters in each generation. For example, the patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad, is unyielding in his authority over his family from the beginning of volume 1, Palace Walk. However, with his aging and with the influence of modernity on his beliefs, he is shown as capable of changing. What is uniquely notable is that his grandson Ahmad (one of the prominent figures of volume 3, Sugar Street) clearly symbolizes tolerance and open-mindedness. To gain the full effect of this fascinating generational dichotomy requires an understanding of Ahmad the grandfather from Palace Walk. This type of symbolic contrast between characters occurs throughout the three novels, but without knowledge of what certain characters are like early in their lives, the effect of who they are in different volumes is not as impactful.(less)

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Jul 25, 2011 Bram marked it as to-read

From Powell's website: "A student of philosophy and an avid reader, [Mahfouz] has been influenced by many Western writers, including Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, Camus, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and, above all, Proust." (!)

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Jul 19, 2007 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars

this was my review written for the first volume in this trilogy:

The Palace Walk is the best novel I have read in years. In the translation published by the Everyman Library the Cairo Trilogy is funny, biting and tragic with precise descriptions and deeply thought out characters. Though I haven’t read much of the great western popular novelists of the 19th century (meaning, Balzac, Dickens, etc) I get the impression that Mafouz was heavily influenced by them. This book is descriptive of setting a...more

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Aug 28, 2007 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars

My dad really loved this book, but I'm kind of lukewarm on it, which makes me sad. I really have a strong distaste for parts of the current arabic culture, which alternately villifies and sanctifies women, with nothing in between. Yes, this book does kind of deal with that, but I found that the very way the author writes was equally sexist. The women in this book were almost always cartoonish, described by their attractiveness, or their virtue, or perhaps their lack thereof, with little effort m...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Babak Fakhamzadeh rated it 5 of 5 stars

The books that pretty much delivered Mahfouz the Nobel prize for literature in 1988.
Originally, Mahfouz envisioned the book to be one, but reluctant publishers, at a time when the Arabic novel was, well, a novel concept, pushed for the book being cut in three.

The story, set shortly before and after the end of the first world war, centers on a middle class family from Cairo, where the father rules with an iron fist at home, while partying the night away with friends.
The book's extremely grippi...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This trilogy written by Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahrouz is set in Cairo in colonial times from the early twenties to the fifties. He plots the lives of the parents and 5 children in the Jawad family in the context of changing history.

The style is heavy with detailed descriptions of their house, the characters, street etc. The storyline is developed through their daily life rather than any dramatic events although when they do happen the pace picks up.

The father Al-Sayyed is a merchant with his...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Sandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: old-favorites

Many wonderful writers have taken me to exotic locales, but one who has been in my thoughts a great deal lately is Naguib Mahfous. Thanks to this man, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, I feel a special kinship with the people of Egypt. They are more than the TV images of a deadly riot after a soccer game or a street filled with an angry mob. I don't mean to say that those images don't tell a story in their own right, but rather that, having read Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, it's easy f...more Many wonderful writers have taken me to exotic locales, but one who has been in my thoughts a great deal lately is Naguib Mahfous. Thanks to this man, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, I feel a special kinship with the people of Egypt. They are more than the TV images of a deadly riot after a soccer game or a street filled with an angry mob. I don't mean to say that those images don't tell a story in their own right, but rather that, having read Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, it's easy for me to empathize with the individuals who make up the crowd.
The first book in the trilogy, Palace Walk, set in the period during and immediately following World War I, introduces us to the family of el-Sayyed Ahmed Abd Gawad, a successful merchant; his wife, Amina; their two daughters, and three sons. I found it both fascinating and frustrating to spend time with Amina as she waited for her husband to come home after an evening out drinking with his friends. Here's how the book begins:
"She woke at midnight. …Habit woke her at this hour. It was an old habit she had developed when young and it had stayed with her as she matured. She had learned it along with the other rules of married life. She woke up at midnight to await her husband's return from his evening's entertainment. Then she would serve him until he went to sleep."
Mahfouz goes on to describe Amina and her home, making the reader a silent companion as she goes out onto the balcony to watch for her husband. We accompany her into the "closed cage formed by the wooden latticework" and stand beside her, watching her turn her face "right and left while she peeked out through the tiny, round openings of the latticework panels that protected her from being seen from the street." When, finally, she hears "the tip of his walking stick strike the steps of the stairway, she held the lamp out over the banister to light his way."
It would be hard to imagine a life and attitude more different from mine than Amina's. Yet, due to the skill with which Mahfouz drew his setting, I vicariously live her life and respect her attitude, even if I only partially understand it.
Palace of Desire, the second book of the trilogy, takes place mostly in the 1920s and shows the effect of modern influences and political turmoil on the various family members. Kamal, the youngest son, goes to college and falls in love. He meets people whose ideas challenge the orderly world in which he grew up. Sugar Street covers the period from roughly 1935 through the end of World War II. As in the Palace Walk, Mahfouz draws his setting with exquisite detail, so that I absorb the culture and feel a part of this household.
I take vicarious part in the rapidly changing social and political climate of Egypt from World War I through the 1950s. I watch as the old ways disappear and a new world, seemingly without rules, takes its place, bringing unique challenges to each individual. Perhaps the most poignant for me was the plight of Amina. I turned the pages of the first book, longing for changes to occur that would give her some freedom, some control over her own destiny, only to realize that, after a lifetime of knowing exactly what was expected of her, freedom was a bewildering concept. Taken as a whole, the three books helped me understand a little better why change does not come easy in that part of the world. Having been given a glimpse into the life of one Egyptian family, I look into the faces in the crowds in the street and wonder where each member of that family would be in this situation.

(less)

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Jan 03, 2012 Alex Goldstein rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Последние 3 недели одолевал книгу классика египетской литературы, нобелевского лауреата Нагиба Махфуза. Называется Palace Walk, это первая часть "Каирской трилогии". Дело происходит в 1919 году в старом квартале Каира. В центре повествования большая арабская семья, во главе с крутым папой, преде которым все трепещут. Подробно описываются отношения внутри семьи, на фоне текущих событий в Египте.
Написано несколько нудно, но тем не менее читать интересно - потому что описывается совершенно непривыч...more Последние 3 недели одолевал книгу классика египетской литературы, нобелевского лауреата Нагиба Махфуза. Называется Palace Walk, это первая часть "Каирской трилогии". Дело происходит в 1919 году в старом квартале Каира. В центре повествования большая арабская семья, во главе с крутым папой, преде которым все трепещут. Подробно описываются отношения внутри семьи, на фоне текущих событий в Египте.
Написано несколько нудно, но тем не менее читать интересно - потому что описывается совершенно непривычные для современного человека отношения между людьми, абсолютно иная система ценностей.
Основные моменты:
- Полное бесправие женщины и ее подчиненность мужчине - будь то отцу или мужу. Нельзя чтобы посторонние видели ее лицо, выходить из дому можно только в сопровождении мужа. Муж царь и бог, его слово закон.
- Вопрос о женитьбе решается между отцом жениха и отцом невесты. Жених и невеста не видят друг друга до свадьбы.
- Отношения между детьми и отцом основаны на полном послушании и покорности.
- Абсолютно разные стандарты поведения для мужчины и для женщины. Муж каждый вечер пьянствует с друзьями, содержит любовниц - это нормально. Женщина вышла без спроса в мечеть на соседней улице - это ужасный проступок, наказание - изгнание из дома, с возвращением через месяц. Муж насилует служанку жены - это позорно, но не слишком. Жена этим недовольна, устраивает скандал, уходит из дома к родителям - это преступление.
- Женщины могут смотреть в окно или с балкона только в щелочку, только бы никто не увидел их лицо.
- Одновременно в Египте проходит интифада против англичан. В конечном итоге англичане уходят, и Египет получает независимость.
- Очень большое место религии в повседневной жизни - детские рассказы - это истории про мусульманских мучеников. Постоянные молитвы. В разговорах между людьми, поминание Аллаха в каждом втором предложении.

В целом мне не настолько понравилось, что бы захотеть прочитать остальные книги трилогии. Язык и стиль изложения не блистает (хотя это перевод, может на арабском оно намного круче). Ну и вообще саги, то есть истории растягивающиеся на годы и десятилетия, выглядят, на мой взгляд, несколько неестественно.(less)

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Mar 19, 2009 Dave O'Neal rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was in thrall to this epic trilogy all last summer. The story of a traditional Egyptian family in Cairo against the political and social upheavals of the late teens, 20s and 30s. I can't begin to summarize quickly why it's fascinating, because it is so on many levels. To pick a few: It's a view of a culture so different from mine as to seem another planet, yet I can relate to every character. Just seeing into a traditional Muslim household is fascinating: the women virtually never leave the ho...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Tasneemali rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites-everr

Aand finally finhsied the three books .. The Cairo Trilogy <3!

I became engaged and attached with every detail and smell and character along the three books , and like all great novels it's not about the eventual end of it but the long anticipatory journey !

It showed me how people used to live with the traditions so afraid to break 'em , all the political issues at that time and how it took courage and open-minded people to abandon these backwards ways they used to have .For the life of me I...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Kipahni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading-in-egypt, 2009-books, run-away-in-the-mind, nobel-laureates

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I audibly huff while reading this book. It also was pointed out to me by my husband that I said "Arg" like a pirate a few times as well.
But I can not help it. Everything that I love and hate about Egyptian Culture is told beautifully in this somewhat "daytime soap" drama. I call it soap because my american view point see's it that way, and yet the story he tells is not so far fetched as that some of my own neighbors are living out very similiar dramas.
I am not finished with this Magnus Opus of...more I audibly huff while reading this book. It also was pointed out to me by my husband that I said "Arg" like a pirate a few times as well.
But I can not help it. Everything that I love and hate about Egyptian Culture is told beautifully in this somewhat "daytime soap" drama. I call it soap because my american view point see's it that way, and yet the story he tells is not so far fetched as that some of my own neighbors are living out very similiar dramas.
I am not finished with this Magnus Opus of Mafouz's but Here are a collection of thoughts so far (stars are pending on the ending of the book)
1. All of his woman are either Saintly Woman, or lurid whores. Which at first I found irritated but then come to realize that this is a general view of a lot of Egyptian men (not all, but a lot).
2. Some cultural significance might be lost in the western mind who is unfamiliar with Egyptian culture. Like the flow of conversation may seem odd or when there is a big shame in the family, in the western mind it may think "What's the big deal?"

more to come later

I decide to give a 4 because, it either should have ended like 200 pages ago or gone on another 200 more, the ending was a little weak. If you are reading to escape, or to enjoy/despise a character then this is a good choice.

Some things to keep in mind when reading this

1. The men treat woman as a commadity and the only redeeming virtue she has is if she is a virgin when she marries and if she can bear and raise children. This is still apparent in rural villages and traces are still felt 50 years later. Mahfouz is giving an acurate account of how the majority of woman are viewed and view themself. (in one part a college girl only went to get an education because she wanted to marry an educated man, not to expand her mind. A practice very common here still because most woman don't marry for love, a recent development in marraige, they marry for security)

2. People get places because of who they know not because of qualifications, so having a high status or knowing someone of high status is priority.

3. Woman are really that submissive in this culuture. It may seem unreal or fake in the book, but it is true. There hasn't been any Womens Lib-feminist movement so it is still extremely male dominate

4. You may laugh at the dichotomy of how the men lived (pious infront of their wives, strict adherant to Islam, and then sleeping around and giving in to all lustful pleasures) but in Islamic religion it is believed that if one just observe ramadan (the fasting month) then all past sins are forgiven (and I have been told that also any future sins) so it was permissible in their minds to behave accordingly.

I still am a little puzzled why Mahfouz makes some of his woman characters such lustful, sex crazed woman, but I think that too is chalked up to culture (One of the prevailing reasons FGM is still practiced is because woman are considered more sexually active and will have uncontrolled lust if she doesn't have the procedure done)

All in all a pretty acurate look into the society in Egypt during the early revolutionary years (1900-1950 ish)(less)

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May 03, 2011 Chris Moriarty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Forget about the Nobel Prize for a minute. This is not stuffy pretentious Capital L Literature. It's a potboiler family saga in the grand 19th century tradition. If you have ever complained that Trollope didn't write ENOUGH, then Naguib Mahfouz is your new best friend.

Oh ... And there's poignant irony, proustian characters, profound insights into human nature, the history of modern Egypt all wrapped up into one soaringly poetic masterpiece .... Yeah. Fine. Whatever.

The main point is that you'd...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Sharon Howe rated it 5 of 5 stars

This huge volume would be easier to read from a kindle. The weight of it impacted how and where I could read it. But it was absolutely worth the months it took me to finish the book. It was slow reading, as I stopped and thought about the story and didn't feel like reading many pages at a time, which is very unusual for me. The story is mainly early 20th century Cairo, with a traditional Muslim family. I liked reading about a time period that didn't have the overlay of events since 9/11. As I re...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has as much sex and blow as Blow and Scarface. It is an epoch work spanning three generations of a family, and taking up an epic 1300+ pages. I don't think the Brother's Karamazov could ever be fairly compared to the Cairo Trilogy without insulting Dostoevsky, but Mahfouz attempts something just as ambitious. Worth a read if you have hours and hours of nothing to do, and are interested in having your preconceptions (if you even had any)of early 20th century life in Egypt blown away...b...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Hanin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Imagine witnessing a gripping saga of three generations of a single family in a story that unfolds during a time you never thought you'd live to witness. I've never felt so present politically, culturally, and socially like I did reading this novel.

This novel gives you detailed descriptions of each of the complex characters. One gets the impression that not much is happening and yet there is a lot going on in the rich psychological depth and description of culture. His style is unique and really...more

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Oct 29, 2010 Mena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Incredible. Mahfouz is able to capture the essence of early 20th century Egypt and Cairo while exploring the smallest nuances in familial and romantic relationships and tackling wider philosophical and political questions through the story of the Ahmad family. I loved the shift in perspective from Ahmad Abd al-Jawad to Kamal as the epic unfolded, and appreciated reading about a country from the perspective of one of its own free of the distorting lens of Orientalism. The only gripe I have is tha...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Lien rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The novels we know best have an architecture. Not only a door going in and another leading out, but rooms, hallways, stairs, little gardens front and back, trapdoors, hidden passageways, et cetera. It's a fortunate rereader who knows half a dozen novels this way in their lifetime."

-from "Rereading Barthes and Nabokov" Zadie Smith

I can't say much more about this novel, it's been my palace with stairs and hidden passageways, etc...
I was devastated when Mr Mahfouz died, I marked it in my agenda,I...more

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May 21, 2013 Ariadna73 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

Using the life of a family in Egypt, Mahfouz masters a way to show different aspects of that ancient and sometimes mysterious culture. I liked to follow some of the thoughts of the members of the family, and some others -like the mother's- were more difficult, probably because I cannot identify with them as well as with the men; although I don't share a great deal of their values and believes. However, the portrait is so real that I really enjoyed reading about it, even though I would never trav...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Jean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Without intending to, I accidentally finished the book this evening, after an almost uninterrupted reading of almost 6 hours. This is a testimony to the incredible gift of writing bestowed upon Mahfouz for creating a book that is not only an immense pleasure to read but also encapsulates all facets of life that time is suspended and the story becomes an extension of your mind. Mahfouz's Tolstoyan ability to describe the essence of love and life makes the trilogy one of the most monumental works...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: january-2013-bookclub

Palace Walk is the first novel in the Cairo Trilogy. Originally Mahfouz submitted the entire manuscript for publication but the publisher refused and insisted on publishing as 3 separate novels. It was serialized when written and definitely reads that way, each chapter leading quickly into the next.

The novel depicts a year (or so) in the life of the al-Sayyids, a middle class Cairenne family, at the end of World War I and the beginning of the 1919 Revolution. The father, Ahmad, is conservative a...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

While not your average page turner, this book is sticking with me. There is "that" quality to this work that seeps in slowly but makes a lasting impression. The characters are each so distinct and quietly developed, it's as if you are all at once, peering into the open backside of this family's Palace Walk doll house. Mahfouz provides a rich view into an Egyptian family saga including the complexities of hypocrisy, control, duty, and the Islamic cultural roles of gender. I found that the author...more While not your average page turner, this book is sticking with me. There is "that" quality to this work that seeps in slowly but makes a lasting impression. The characters are each so distinct and quietly developed, it's as if you are all at once, peering into the open backside of this family's Palace Walk doll house. Mahfouz provides a rich view into an Egyptian family saga including the complexities of hypocrisy, control, duty, and the Islamic cultural roles of gender. I found that the author provided this intimate view of the harsh divide between male/female roles in Egyptian Islam, while his female characters seemed the stronger of the two sexes, less flawed, and the more pious. Here are a few of my random observations & ponderings.

- Ahmad, the tyrannical father, attempts to control every single aspect of his family's life, though he cannot control his own lascivious behavior. In the end, as a natural element of his family's progression, he can no longer control them either.

- While one son is following exactly in his father's footsteps, which is truly against Islamic law and duty, the other son is following the duty for the greater good of Egyptian independence. Ironically, this "devoutly religious" father is considerably more upset at his politically dutiful son for his disobedience, not against God, but against the control of his father.

- I wonder if the father's hypocrisy and uber-control stem from his struggle to control his own human desires (which are innate), or from the cultural and religious responsibility that are his head-of-household duty?

- Egypt has such rich and immense history from the polytheistic empires of ancient Egypt, to the Ptolemaic and Greco-Roman era, to the Arab, to the Ottoman, to the dynasties under British patronage, and now in oh-so-recent past, independence again. Will Egypt foster and embrace a greater degree of tolerance and diversity that is a fascinating element of their history, or will they fall deeper into the nationalistic control based pattern of some of their Islamic brethren? I warned that these were random ponderings..... (less)

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Dec 02, 2012 Ivan rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Here’s a philosopher who comes from a family deeply rooted in ignorance”
Naguib Mahfouz

La Trilogía del Cairo es, sin lugar a dudas, una magnífica y hermosa saga familiar del mundo árabe. Conformada por tres libros Palace Walk, Palace of Desire y Sugar Street; Mahfouz nos lleva a revivir, mediante la familia Jawad, el cambio cultural, político y social acaecido durante las dos guerras mundiales y la apertura a occidente que se vivió en Egipto. El autor toma como escenario de sus obras la ciudad d...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Matthew Moes rated it 5 of 5 stars

A Novel About Culture; When the author's death was announced only about a month ago I was surprised he was still living at all. I think he is the only Arab so far to win the Nobel prize for literature. He is certainly a controversial figure for Egyptians who seem at the same embarrassed by his candor, but proud of his international acclaim.

I was told that Edward Said recommended this book for those who wanted to better understand Arab culture. For the past three years I read this novel on and of...more A Novel About Culture; When the author's death was announced only about a month ago I was surprised he was still living at all. I think he is the only Arab so far to win the Nobel prize for literature. He is certainly a controversial figure for Egyptians who seem at the same embarrassed by his candor, but proud of his international acclaim.

I was told that Edward Said recommended this book for those who wanted to better understand Arab culture. For the past three years I read this novel on and off. During that time it became a guilty pleasure. The pleasure, from the real quality of the work. The guilt, because it would not garnish approval from the average Arab American that has met my acquaintance. And yet, through the characters in this book, I feel I have gained much insight into my own predicament as a contemporary Muslim.

The characters in this book help to explore our humanity in a boldly honest manner. They are not the conformist utilitarian personalities belonging to an Islamist movement. They are not totally irreligious either, though their obvious character “flaws” might come as a bit of a shock to those who think that all Muslims are part of a worldwide monolith.

Really the book is not about Islam at all, and shouldn't be confused as such. But then neither is what we are - when we seek to define it, act it, live it, losing ourselves within a movement as we become part of it.

In any case, I enjoyed the variety of characters, the historical setting that was Egypt from around the turn of 1900 to WWII. I enjoyed the social themes that emerged in this context: religion, family, love, politics, colonialism, justice, and the illusive solutions that presented themselves in those times such as science, communism, & religious fundamentalism.

And it still makes me wonder how far we've really come in the past 50 years. Not really far at all I suspect. Consider this review a work in progress as I think a bit more about what else I gained from this book.

MM October 22, 2006(less)

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Jun 09, 2012 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: egypt

The Cairo trilogy covers decades of life in an exceptional nation through the story of one extended family, the Jawads. While the focus of these books is on personal life, the family is impinged by politics, war and foreign occupation - as well as traffic hazards, illness and the health and education systems. The trilogy opens during the Great War and English colonialism and closes at the end of WW2, as Egypt enters six decades of dictatorship.

Palace Walk

In an ultra-conservative society the Jaw...more

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Dec 03, 2010 Michael Arden rated it 4 of 5 stars

The trilogy concerning the Egyptian family of the patriarch, al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, is one of the great family sagas of modern literature. By focusing on one family Mahfouz sums up the history of modern Egypt in the first half of the twentieth century. Consisting of Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street, the story concerns the tyrannical al-Sayid Ahmad, his wife, sons, daughters, and grandchildren. He lords it over his meek, stay-at-home wife, Amina, his sons, Yasin, Fahmy, and...more The trilogy concerning the Egyptian family of the patriarch, al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, is one of the great family sagas of modern literature. By focusing on one family Mahfouz sums up the history of modern Egypt in the first half of the twentieth century. Consisting of Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street, the story concerns the tyrannical al-Sayid Ahmad, his wife, sons, daughters, and grandchildren. He lords it over his meek, stay-at-home wife, Amina, his sons, Yasin, Fahmy, and Kamal, and his daughters, Khadija, the homely matriarch-to-be, and the beautiful but tragic Aisha. Fahmy, the idealistic son, is killed off early as a martyr to the British occupiers, while Yasin follows his father’s example by being both a drinker and womanizer who is faithless to his wives in succession. Kamal, the main focus of the second and third books, is the tortured, philosophical intellectual whose unrequited love for the remote but beautiful Aida, the sister of his wealthy friend Husayn, inspires Mahfouz to his most unbearably beautiful writing in the entire trilogy.

Though it is tempting to say, “They are just like us,” there is actually much that is exotic about this Muslim family of a distant time and place. And while some of the political allusions are quite obscure to Westerners, the story stays right on track to the third generation, the sons of Khadija, Abd al-Muni’m and Ahmad, who embody two responses to colonialism, Muslim fundamentalism and political radicalism respectively. Ahmad’s love affair culminating in marriage (over the protests of his shrewish mother) with the politicized Sawsan, a dark beauty from a poor family, is something of a catharsis for the reader reeling from the disaster of Kamal’s failed love affair with Aida. On the other hand, al-Sayyid Ahmad, whose love for late evenings of wine, women and song while he spouts religious pieties and ruthlessly bullies his wife, might inspire considerable distaste in the reader, while the two grandsons become too symbolic of social forces by the end of the book. Yet the many soaring passages of writing keep the story flowing in this excellent translation from the Arabic, and earned Mahfouz the Nobel Prize for Literature, the only Egyptian writer to do so.
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Jan 16, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: u-of-chicago, fiction, lincoln-park-group, nobel-prize, egypt, favorites, trilogy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The first novel, Palace Walk, introduces the family of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad: his wife Amina, sons Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, and daughters Khadija and Aisha. This family will be the center of all three novels as Mahfouz chronicles their experiences living within a Cairo neighborhood identified by the street, Palace Walk, home to the family. Prominent among the themes of the first novel is the freedom of the family (or lack of freedom) under the authoritarian rule of the father. Mahfouz slowly develop...more The first novel, Palace Walk, introduces the family of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad: his wife Amina, sons Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, and daughters Khadija and Aisha. This family will be the center of all three novels as Mahfouz chronicles their experiences living within a Cairo neighborhood identified by the street, Palace Walk, home to the family. Prominent among the themes of the first novel is the freedom of the family (or lack of freedom) under the authoritarian rule of the father. Mahfouz slowly develops the relationships within the family and the novel builds upon events that epitomize the growth of each family member. Just as the middle son Fahmy excels in school he begins to seek freedom in the growth of nationalist fervor during the era of the Great War. Amina, who is present on the first page has the temerity to defy her husband and pays a price, yet demonstrates growth in stature within the family. Amina's life and personality is the lifeblood of the homelife of the family, bracketed by the scenes of the coffee hour and Amina on the roof overlooking the city. As the first novel ends we find the family's peace and structure threatened portending more change in the novels that follow.

The second novel of Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy is titled Palace of Desire. The family of Ahmad al-Jawad has expanded as the married daughters and son have children. Particularly touching and revelatory is a scene where Ahmad becomes the doting grandfather demonstrating a side of his character that we did not see in the first novel of the trilogy. We also see the permutations of love and desire on display as the family evolves through the maturation of the second generation. There is a particular focus on the development of Kamal, the youngest of the children, who has seen success in school and slowly leaves behind his youthful innocence as he develops into a thinker, a writer, and an admirer of the perfection of beauty as embodied in the young Aida Shaddad. His view of love is doomed to an unsuccessful search for perfection when the one he adores, Aida, rejects him and leaves Egypt with another. Kamal will eventually satisfy his bodily needs with girls from the brothel district while he lives an ascetic life of the philosophic writer and teacher. He also highlights one other theme of the novel with his popularization of western philosophy as Egyptian nationalism grows and the culture of Ahmad's family is buffeted by the new ideas. Perhaps the eldest son, Yasin, best represents the view of love as mere desire. Even in the first novel Yasin had demonstrated his inability to control his natural desire for women and this lack of control continues to complicate his life. Unlike his father, who could discreetly maintain his life with the singers of the night separately from his home life, Yasin blunders about, endangering both his home life and his career. Desire permeates this story even as the world of Ahmad, the father, slowly begins to lose the control that seemed to be his main characteristic as the trilogy began.

The novel Sugar Street ends Naguib Mahfouz's masterpiece bringing the story of Al-Sayyid Ahmad's family to a close. With the death of Al-Sayyid his wife Amina is all alone. In a moving chapter we hear her voice and see the world through her eyes as she feels more alone than ever before. The house and the coffee hour are no longer the same. But the focus has turned to the grandchildren, particularly Ahmad and al-Muni'm, sons of Khadija. Each is seeking new directions, mirroring the political and cultural changes in Egypt as World War II approaches. Kamal continues to pine for his ideal love, Aida, and almost finds it in her younger sister, Budur. His own indecision prevents him from making a commitment to her, turning away when she makes the slightest advance. Superficially his life resembles that of his nephew Ridwan, the beautiful son of his brother Yasin. Kamal meets his old friend Husayn Shaddad one final time, learning of the fate of Aida and the Shaddad family, but not with any sense of encouragement or satisfaction. As the novel ends family change occurs once again with the passing of Amina and the birth of Yasin's first grandchild. There is a hopeful sign as Yasin goes out with Kamal to buy clothes for the new baby.

Mahfouz's trilogy has epic sweep in its depiction of the changes to Cairo over the first half of the twentieth century mirrored in the growth and change of the Ahmad family. He presents ideas and demonstrates them with the actions and interactions of the characters as they love and learn and die. The outside world, first seen in the occupation of the British, grows throughout and looms ever larger as the final novel in the trilogy ends. Twentieth century ideologies are beginning to affect Egypt with the power seen elsewhere in the world and the portent is ominous. Yet with that Mahfouz leaves the reader with the possibility of hope and the encouragement that can only be found in a great literary achievement.(less)

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Feb 19, 2010 Phoenix rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is magnificent. I was not expecting, from a translation, to be pulled in so completely, but I have not been able to put it down for three days. It is the story of a Muslim family ruled by a strict father who cloisters the women. It is centered around the heart of the household- the mother - but the author carefully and lovingly brings each character to life. For me, someone who is intrigued by the mystery of this way of life, it is a "lifting of the veil" into their turbulent emotions,...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Inert1 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, nobel, own

The trilogy follows the lives of an Egyptian family over the course of several decades, as children grow and become adults, leading to joy and anguish. The family portrayed has unusual traits, but they exist in a fascinating world that offers a glimpse into Egyptian society, which has many features that a Western reader finds curious and exotic. The expectations and societal norms range from charming to disturbing, and some of the characters deviate far beyond the norms of Egyptian society. Neve...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first time, reading Naguib Mahfouz, that I was really able to understand how women could live in the world of the cloistered family harim--what they knew and didn't know, how they thought about their lives. These books are a miracle, a bridge into an utterly foreign way of life. What a writer, elegant prose, very well translated, so vivid and sensuous and clearly visualized.

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Jul 27, 2011 Deb Oestreicher added it

While it requires a rather enormous investment of time and patience (after all, it's nearly a thousand pages), it vividly creates a distant place, and provides terrific insight into a vastly different culture; worthwhile even if much of that culture belongs to a vanished world--partly, the trilogy, which is a family saga that plays out over three generations, documents its vanishing.

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The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy #1-3)

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