Being Egyptian, I can see how this book can be difficult to read for non-middle eastern readers. On the contrary to someone who grew up in the middle east or even just has ties to the culture, the dynamic is a lot easier to grasp, as well as the atmosphere of the book. Glad you made a video on it!
Up until the 19th century, Egyptians were restricted from owning anything land, horses, cows or swords etc .... Nearly 98.5% of the population remained illiterate, and escaping the country was often the only path to a brighter future. And we never liked leaving the Nile Valley, So you can imagine in those circumstances the situation of the father and the mother who both have the ideas and beliefs of this era in the back of their minds. Egyptians endured a prolonged era of darkness, with the Ottoman Empire holding dominion for centuries in the 50 years leading up to the events in this book, the tide of change began to sweep through the nation. In this shifting landscape, being a shopkeeper or owning a small land is as Rich as you could get. painting Amina like this was also because of that, he was trying to show how was an illiterate women in that era saw the world. Nagib Mahfouz is far from being an islamist the man had an assassination attempt and got stabbed in the neck by extremist for his book : children of the valley which i highly recommend for you to read.
Loved every moment of the Alley books - and everything by this great writer. Mafouz is the master of metaphor. He’s a writer’s writer. I’ve read everything by him, actually. Genius!!! I was devastated when he was assassinated.
I felt privileged to have a whole different culture than the one I know unfold before me over these great books. How anyone can simply dismiss them is beyond me. With Nagib Mafouz, you hold gold in your hands. As a feminist I was shocked at how limited a woman’s life could be, but that does not make these stories any less precious, in fact, that’s the generosity and humanity of the great writer: he gives us a window into the suffering and the beauty of what it was like to live so differently from our current lives of freedom. The writing is vivid and uniquely his own. And again: the true geniuses of literature are gifted in metaphor, none more so than Nagib Mafouz.
Being Egyptian, I can see how this book can be difficult to read for non-middle eastern readers. On the contrary to someone who grew up in the middle east or even just has ties to the culture, the dynamic is a lot easier to grasp, as well as the atmosphere of the book. Glad you made a video on it!
Up until the 19th century, Egyptians were restricted from owning anything land, horses, cows or swords etc ....
Nearly 98.5% of the population remained illiterate, and escaping the country was often the only path to a brighter future. And we never liked leaving the Nile Valley,
So you can imagine in those circumstances the situation of the father and the mother who both have the ideas and beliefs of this era in the back of their minds.
Egyptians endured a prolonged era of darkness, with the Ottoman Empire holding dominion for centuries
in the 50 years leading up to the events in this book, the tide of change began to sweep through the nation.
In this shifting landscape, being a shopkeeper or owning a small land is as Rich as you could get.
painting Amina like this was also because of that, he was trying to show how was an illiterate women in that era saw the world.
Nagib Mahfouz is far from being an islamist the man had an assassination attempt and got stabbed in the neck by extremist for his book : children of the valley which i highly recommend for you to read.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment, and the book recommendation.
Loved every moment of the Alley books - and everything by this great writer. Mafouz is the master of metaphor. He’s a writer’s writer. I’ve read everything by him, actually. Genius!!! I was devastated when he was assassinated.
I felt privileged to have a whole different culture than the one I know unfold before me over these great books. How anyone can simply dismiss them is beyond me. With Nagib Mafouz, you hold gold in your hands. As a feminist I was shocked at how limited a woman’s life could be, but that does not make these stories any less precious, in fact, that’s the generosity and humanity of the great writer: he gives us a window into the suffering and the beauty of what it was like to live so differently from our current lives of freedom. The writing is vivid and uniquely his own. And again: the true geniuses of literature are gifted in metaphor, none more so than Nagib Mafouz.