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Palace Walk (The Cairo Trilogy, #1)

Naguib Mahfouz,

William Maynard Hutchins (Translator)

Start date: September 1, 2019

Finish date: September 30, 2019

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Apr 29, 2020 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: long, relationships, love, 2020-read, audible-uk, religion, egypt, series, hf, classics

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1988 was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind."

These words hold true here; they fit this novel well. Palace Walk is the first in a series of three entitled The Cairo Trilogy. It was published in 1956 but didn’t come out in English until 1990.

The story is about a Muslim Arab family living in Cairo. It opens in 1917, duri The Nobel Prize in Literature 1988 was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind."

These words hold true here; they fit this novel well. Palace Walk is the first in a series of three entitled The Cairo Trilogy. It was published in 1956 but didn’t come out in English until 1990.

The story is about a Muslim Arab family living in Cairo. It opens in 1917, during the First World War. It ends in 1919, carrying the story through the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 (Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptia...). It is a book of historical fiction, but it is first and foremost about family.

The family consists of the tyrannical father, a shopkeeper, and his subservient wife. He goes by the name of al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. Her name is Amina. They have five children--Yasin (the eldest son of twenty one, born to the father’s earlier wife), Khadija (the sharp-tongued eldest daughter of twenty), Fahmy (a politically oriented student of law, eighteen years of age), Aisha (the pretty, blonde haired, blue eyed youngest daughter of sixteen) and Kamal (a rambunctious schoolboy of nine). Add to this a longtime-employed maid—Umm Hanafi. Four are of the marrying age—so of course we see if they marry, and if so whom.

It is not hard to keep track of who is who, despite Arabic names. This is because each on is so distinct. Characters are nuanced, even the horrid, licentious, dictatorial father. The members of the family have different personalities; there is not a chance of mixing them up. They bicker, and yet it is evident, they dearly love each other too. What they say to each other feels very real. When the story is over, you think—this, is a wonderful story that shows what it is to be family. It is a story focused on character portrayal.

The ending is just as it should be. It doesn’t end with a cliff-hanger. Pick up the next in the series or don’t; it’s up to you. I am left with a warm, good feeling of what family is all about. The ending is both realistic and optimistic—a mix of sweet and sad, good and bad.

Neil Shah narrates the audiobook. His narration I have given three stars. When we are told what is happening, who does this and who does that, the narration is fine. It is clear and read at an easy to follow pace. However, in the dialogues, when the different characters speak, Shah uses different intonations. These intonations I detest. Thy are alternately screechy or gruff and exaggerated. I averaged out the good and the bad and have ended up with three stars, for the narration.

I like this book a lot. It gives an accurate description of family, any family. It also gives the reader a feeling for life in Cairo at the beginning of the 20th century. You get a feel for the time and place--culture and traditions are well drawn. Naguib Mahfouz is a Nobel Prize winner that I do recommend. Look again at the reason given for why he won the prize. Those words tell you what you will get. ...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, historical-fiction, bookmooch, hf-egypt, family-saga, egypt, nobel-prize, 3ms

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Page 56:
"The important thing is to rid ourselves of the nightmare of the English and for the caliphate to return to its previous grandeur. Then they will find the way prepared to us."

Page 322:
"Amazing news is spreading among the students. A delegation or "wafd" composed by the nationalist leaders Sa'd Zaghlul Pasha, Abd al-Aziz Fahmy Bey, and Ali Sha'rawi Pasha went to the British Residency in Cairo yesterday and met with the High Commissioner, requesting that the British protectorate over Egypt Page 56:
"The important thing is to rid ourselves of the nightmare of the English and for the caliphate to return to its previous grandeur. Then they will find the way prepared to us."

Page 322:
"Amazing news is spreading among the students. A delegation or "wafd" composed by the nationalist leaders Sa'd Zaghlul Pasha, Abd al-Aziz Fahmy Bey, and Ali Sha'rawi Pasha went to the British Residency in Cairo yesterday and met with the High Commissioner, requesting that the British protectorate over Egypt be lifted and independence declared."

Page 235:
Tell me, brother, what can Sa'd do against a nation that now considers itself the unrivaled mistress of the world?"
The mother nodded her head in agreement, as though he had been addressing her. She stated: "The revolutionary leader Urabi Pasha was one of the greatest men and one of the most courageous. Sa'd and the others are nothing compared with him. He was in the cavalry, a fighting man. What did he get from the English, boys? They imprisoned him and then exiled him to a land on the other side of the world."

Page 353:
"If we don't confront terrorism with the anger it deserves, may the nation never live again. It's unthinkable for the nation to be at peace when its leader who has sacrificed himself for it suffers the torments of captivity."

Page 358:
"Down with the Protectorate!"
"Our fathers have been imprisoned. We don't study law in a land where the law is trampled underfoot.:

Page 373:
A revolution was raging in all areas of the Nile Valley from the extreme north to the extreme south. Fahmy recounted what he knew about the railroads and telegraph and telephone lines being cut, the outbreak of demonstrations in different provinces, the battles between the English and the revolutionaries, the massacres, the martyrs, the nationalist funerals with processions with tens of coffins at a time, ant the capital city with its students, workers, and attorneys on strike, where transportation was limited to carts. He remarked heatedly, "Is this really a revolution? Let them kill as many as their savagery dictates. Death only invigorates us."

...more

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Sep 09, 2009 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: muslim

The best exploration of "the alleys, the palaces,the mosques and the people who live among them " seen thru the eyes of Al-Sayyid Ahmad, his spouse Amina ,their 3 sons and 2 daughters set in Cairo in 1919. An added thrill that this was edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . Naguib Mahfouz went on to win the well deserved Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. This work first published in 1956 and translated into English in 1990 could well have been written yesterday for its insight. ...more

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