From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

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

Naguib Mahfouz

Start date: May 1, 2015

Finish date: July 31, 2015

Discussion: Door Stops

Discussion leader: PDXReader

Why we're reading this: May-June Doorstop group read
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Door Stops

A Suitable Boy - Parts 4-6 (Week 2: Jan 10-16)
By Sera · 24 posts · 33 views

last updated Feb 03, 2017 06:30PM

A Suitable Boy, Parts 1-3 (Week One: Jan 1-9)
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last updated Feb 02, 2017 01:01PM

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What Members Thought

Dec 13, 2014 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, classics

Wow. Over the half of a year that I've read these three books this family has become part of me, through their humanity and their flaws. ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Jun 06, 2015 Petra rated it really liked it

Palace Walk (a reread in preparation of reading the rest of the trilogy)
A quiet, yet gripping story of change, culture and tradition. Told with humor and warmth the story portrays a country in a time of turmoil & upheaval. The old ways are changing, the future is uncertain.
The story of the Abd al-Jawad family mirrors the changes in the country. The family strives for and are compelled to follow the stringent ways of tradition and obedience but they show their individuality & minds in small, hid Palace Walk (a reread in preparation of reading the rest of the trilogy)
A quiet, yet gripping story of change, culture and tradition. Told with humor and warmth the story portrays a country in a time of turmoil & upheaval. The old ways are changing, the future is uncertain.
The story of the Abd al-Jawad family mirrors the changes in the country. The family strives for and are compelled to follow the stringent ways of tradition and obedience but they show their individuality & minds in small, hidden ways that threaten to transform tradition.
The reader is drawn into this family. I look forward to continuing with the trilogy.
4-stars

Palace of Desire
The story of the Abd al-Jawad family continues, as does Egypt's rise to independence. Wonderfully told; Mahfouz has a way with words and can paint scenes in one's mind.
This book focusses on desire: Kamal desires Aida; Ahmad, afraid of losing his youth and virility, desires Zanuba; Yasin just desires women. The country desires independence and freedom.
This book, as entertainment, lags a bit behind Palace Walk because of the lamenting of lost love and the talk of politics. Also, the women are kept hidden from us, as they are from society but when they peek out they are delightful.
Despite this, this is a wonderful read; full of life, uncertainty, confusion and desire. Egypt and society are in flux, forever moving and no one is on solid footing. Whereas the men of Ahmad's generation found a balance between duty and fun, the generation of Yasin & Kamal has lost that balance of duty & dignity and seem to be searching for some meaning.
An interesting quote relating to the changing times:
"Do you think you can rule the young people of today in the old-fashioned way? These youngsters are used to demonstrating in the streets and confronting the soldiers."
4-stars

Sugar Street
Hmmm.....there is even more splintering from tradition....or perhaps changing tradition to a new way of Life. The al-Jawad family has certainly grown in many directions.
This book was the least entertaining of the three with lots of politics and self-realizations of short-comings.
3-stars

All in all, this is a good trilogy. It tells of Egyptian life, customs, beliefs and family through 3 generations. I did feel, though, at a bit of a disadvantage that kept me from perhaps engaging with the story as much as I would have liked to. The culture is fascinating on one hand and unfamiliar on the other. There seems to be duplicity in the men (pious by day; lustful at night); the characterization of women as either saintly or in some way wanton; the depiction of woman as commodities (only once was a woman seen as someone with thoughts & ideas).
I feel as if this is a great story and that by not being a part of the culture myself I missed parts of what were being said. However, I enjoyed this family, its characters and the direction that their futures were taking. They are a wonderful family to spend some time with, even if we don't always see eye to eye. These are good people leading honest lives. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review