47. "Miramar" by Nagib Mahfuz [English version]

Year of first publication: 1967
Genre: novel

Country: Egypt

Naguib Mahfouz (or Nagib Mahfuz, according to the transliteration), Nobel Prize for Literature 1988, is not only one of the greatest Arabic-language writers, but also one of the greatest African writers. In spite of this, at least in Italy he is little known and few people – better to say very few people - read him.
Miramar is set in the 1960s in Alexandria, Egypt: the novel starts from the point of view of ‘Amer Wagdi, a retired journalist, who arrives at a boarding house called Miramar, managed by one of his old acquaintances, Mariana. The boarding house was once a fashionable place where classy people used to meet. Mariana was beautiful and haughty too. The situation of the guesthouse and its owner reflects that of the ancient and once marvellous city of Alexandria, that has always been an inspiration for poets.
One day a girl called Zahra comes to the guesthouse in order to ask for shelter and work. She is the daughter of an old client and she’s very beautiful, despite the fact that she is a peasant without an education. What soon follows is an affectionate friendship between ‘Amer Wagdi and Zahra, who escaped from her village after her grandfather tried to marry her off to a much older man. In town Zahra receives several marriage proposals, from young men staying at the guesthouse and even from the newsagent. The rest of the novel is told by Zahra’s three “suitors”: Hosni ‘Allam, Mansur Bahi and Sarhan al-Buheiri. The three of them fall in love with the girl, with different nuances. The chauvinism of Egyptian society is perceived, but also the independence and the obstinacy of its women is evident.
The story that struck me as the most interesting is that of Sarhan al-Buheiri, who has a relationship with a girl named Safiyya, a “good for nothing”, but doesn’t want to marry her or anyone else. He falls in love with Zahra instantly and says that he really loves her, but he doesn’t consider her suitable for marriage, because she doesn’t have an education or a job that can prospect a rise in society. He thinks a lot about that and ends up offering her a traditional Islamic marriage, without witnesses. Sarhan claims that love and marriage are two separate things and as a matter of fact ends up marrying ‘Aliyya, the teacher Zahra had hired to have some education, in the hope of being accepted by Sarhan.
Miramar tells the same story four times, from four different points of view. But the most fascinating thing is that the whole story is a metaphor: Zahra represents modern Egypt, honest and hard-working but without an education. Zahra – and Egypt – are influenced by several forces: Europeans, nationalists, the rich upper-class and the Muslim Brotherhood, but in the end she demonstrates her independence and obstinacy. Miramar is also a detective novel, albeit rather unusual, because there is a mystery which is not solved until the end of the book.

About the author: Nagib Mahfuz (1911-2006) was born in Cairo into a middle class family. He graduated in philosophy from Cairo university and wrote more than 50 novels, many of which has been adapted for the silver screen. His first novels can de described as historical, but his interests became more sociologic, with a series of novels entitled like streets and buildings of Cairo and therefore called “Cairo trilogy”: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street. Disillusioned by Nasser regime, he stopped writing for a few years and then came back with Chichat on the Nile (1966), which criticized the decadence of Egyptian society and was banned by Sadat. Children of Gebelawi (1959), one of his most famous books, was banned for alleged blasphemy for the allegorical portrayal of God and the monotheistic religions. Like many other Arab intellectuals, he has been on the death list of fundamentalists (he was also suspected of atheism, reason for which he was transferred from the Minister of Religion to that of Culture). Mahfouz, who firmly believed in freedom of opinion, defended Salman Rushdie, against whom ayatollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa, even though he didn’t agree with Rushdie on his view of Islam. Some of the old polemics against his book Children of Gibelawi resurfaced and he was put under protection, like Rushdie. This was not enough and he was stubbed, leaving him with a permanent lesion on his right hand. Unable to write for more than a few minutes per day, Mahfouz wrote less and less, until his death in 2006. He is one the greatest Arabic-language writers and the first among them to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

47. "Miramar" by Nagib Mahfuz

Anno di prima pubblicazione: 1967
Genere: romanzo
Paese: Egitto

In English: Miramar by Naguib Mahfouz (alternative spelling) [By the way, Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy was given as one of Africa's 100 best books of the 20th century, in a list compiled at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair]

Nagib Mahfuz, Premio Nobel per la Letteratura 1988, è non solo uno dei più grandi scrittori di lingua araba, ma anche uno dei più grandi scrttori africani. Eppure, almeno in Italia, è poco conosciuto, lo leggono in pochi, anzi in pochissimi.
Questo Miramar è ambientato negli anni ’60 ad Alessandria d’Egitto: il romanzo inizia dal punto di vista di ‘Amer Wagdi, un giornalista in pensione, che arriva alla pensione Miramar, gestita da una sua vecchia conoscenza, Mariana. La pensione un tempo era un luogo elegante dove si riunivano le persone di gran classe. Anche Mariana era bellissima e maestosa. La situazione della pensione e della proprietaria rispecchia naturalmente quella dell’antichissima e un tempo bellissima città di Alessandria, che da sempre è ispirazione per i poeti.
Un giorno alla pensione arriva una ragazza, Zahra, a chiedere a Mariana rifugio e un lavoro. E’ la figlia di un vecchio cliente ed è bellissima, nonostante sia una contadina senza istruzione. Nasce subito un’amicizia affettuosa tra ‘Amer Wagdi e Zahra, che è scappata dal suo villaggio dopo che il nonno ha cercato di obbligarla a sposare un uomo molto più anziano di lei. In città Zahra riceve numerose proposte di matrimonio, dai giovani che soggiornano alla pensione e persino dal giornalaio. Il resto del romanzo è narrato dal punto di vista dai tre “pretendenti” di Zahra, Hosni ‘Allam, Mansur Bahi e Sarhan al-Buheiri. Tutti e tre si innamorano della ragazza, con sfumature diverse. Si percepisce il maschilismo della società egiziana, ma anche l’indipendenza e la caparbietà delle sue donne.
La storia che mi ha colpito di più è quella di Sarhan al-Buheiri, che ha una relazione con una ragazza, Safiyya, una “poco di buono”, ma non vuole sposare né lei né nessun altra. Si innamora all’istante di Zahra e dice di amarla veramente, ma non la considera adatta al matrimonio, perché non ha un’istruzione né un lavoro che gli permetta una minima ascesa sociale. Si fa molti scrupoli sulla faccenda e arriva al punto di volerla sposare con il matrimonio islamico originale, senza testimoni. Sarhan sostiene che l’amore è una cosa e il matrimonio un’altra, ed infatti finisce per sposare ‘Aliyya, la maestra che Zahra aveva chiamato per farsi dare un minimo di istruzione, con la vana speranza di essere accettata da Sarhan.
Miramar narra la stessa storia quattro volte, da quattro punti di vista differenti. Ma la cosa più affascinante è che tutta la storia è una metafora: Zahra rappresenta l’Egitto moderno, onesto e laborioso ma senza istruzione. Zahra – e l’Egitto – vengono influenzati da diverse forze: gli europei, i nazionalisti, la ricca alta borghesia e i Fratelli Musulmani, ma alla fine dimostra la sua indipendenza e caparbietà. Miramar è anche un romanzo giallo, sebbene alquanto inusuale, perché c’è un mistero che non verrà risolto fino più o meno alla fine del libro.

Sull’autore: Nagib Mahfuz (1911 – 2006), nato in una famiglia piccolo-borghese al Cairo, si è laureato in filosofia all’Università del Cairo e scrisse più di cinquanta romanzi, molti dei quali sono stati adattati per il cinema. I suoi primi romanzi possono essere definiti storici, ma poi i suoi interessi divennero piuttosto sociologici, con una serie di romanzi intitolati come vie e palazzi del Cairo e perciò denominati "trilogia del Cairo": Tra i Due Palazzi, Il Palazzo del Desiderio, La Via dello Zucchero. Disilluso dal regime di Nasser, smise di scrivere per qualche anno e poi riprese con Chiacchiere sul Nilo (1966), critico verso la decadenza della società egiziana e proibito da Sadat. Il Rione dei Ragazzi (1959), uno dei suoi libri più famosi, fu proibito per presunta blasfemia nell’allegorico ritratto di Dio e delle religioni monoteistiche. Come molti altri intellettuali arabi, è stato nella lista nera dei fondamentalisti (fu, tra l’altro, sospettato di ateismo, motivo per il quale fu trasferito dal Ministero della Religione a quello della Cultura). Mahfuz, che credeva fermamente nella libertà d’opinione, difese Salman Rushdie contro il quale l’ayatollah Khomeini aveva dichiarato una fatwa, seppur non condividendo le posizioni sull’Islam dello scrittore anglo-indiano. La cosa fece riaffiorare delle vecchie polemiche riguardo al suo romanzo Il Rione dei Ragazzi e Mahfuz fu messo sotto scorta, come Rushdie. Questo non bastò e Mahfuz venne comunque aggredito e pugnalato, provocandogli una lesione permanente alla mano destra. Incapace di scrivere per più di qualche minuto al giorno, Mahfuz scrisse sempre di meno, fino alla morte avvenuta nel 2006. Mahfuz rimane uno dei grandi scrittori in lingua araba e il primo fra questi ad aver vinto il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura.

29. "A Map of Home" by Randa Jarrar

In italiano: La Collezionista di Storie di Randa Jarrar, edito da Piemme (2009), € 17,50
Leggi la mia recensione in italiano nella rivista on-line Paper Street (qui link)

Year of first publication: 2008
Genre: novel, bildungsroman
Country: USA / Egypt / Palestine / Kuwait

About the author: Randa Jarra was born in 1978 in Chicago from a Palestinian father and a Greek-Egyptian mother. Randa and her family moved to Kuwait when she was only two months old and in 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, they escaped to Egypt and then to the USA. She got a degree in Middle Eastern Studies from an American university and she is a translator from Arabic, but also a blogger and a short-story writer. She lives in Michigan with her partner and son. Her website is http://www.randajarrar.com/ .

The review of this book has been published in Italian on the on-line review Paper Street (link).

However, I'd like to add a part of an interview with Randa Jarrar appeared on Zocalo Public Square (link). The main character of the novel is called Nidali. Here's what the author says about her:

"Nidali is very bossy, loud, profane, funny, and she’s obsessed with her family’s history and her identity, and with how her new, sort of post-postcolonial self fits into the larger world she inhabits. She spends a lot of the novel trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs in the grand scheme, not just with her family, but with her international self, and who she want to be as opposed to who she is expected to be. Her family is full of failed artists, her dad is a failed poet and her mom is a failed concert pianist, and their main identity is rooted in their failure as artists. Their secondary identity is given to them by their own families, their places of origin—her mom’s as an Egyptian, and her father’s as a Palestinian. Nidali comes out of that, being a sort of mixed child in a somewhat homogenous culture. Even though they’re Arabs, her parents are from two different countries and it’s still seen as somewhat bizarre and out of the norm. From the very beginning, she has this feeling of being out of place, or being strange, or being a mix of things. Throughout the novel, she explores this mix, and tries to figure out a way for herself to be whole in the face of all this mixing."

And here's what Jarrar says about literary expectations on Arab and Arab American writers:

"I think readers tend to like stories by Muslim and Arab American women that detail sort of women’s oppression. Instead of a rags-to-riches story, it’s more of a hijab-to-freedom story. It doesn’t occur, I think, to most Americans, or not just Americans but the general population, that a woman can wear a hijab and can be the mistress of her own household and her own life and all that. I think there is a preoccupation with that kind of story.
There is also I think an expectation that an Arab American writer is going to tell sort of whimsical, magical stories, that Arabian Nights, genie-in-a-bottle sort of stereotype that an Arab American is an adept storyteller. That is what people expect, fantastical stories about ridiculous stuff, just bullshit. I think the oppressed woman, the ornate magic story, and maybe a third strain would be the hyper-political novel, or if not hyper-political, the somewhat didactic novel, not even set in America, or set in America featuring new immigrants, and showing the politically charged aspect of being Arab American or Arab post-9/11. Readers expect these books to be testaments of on-the-edge fundamentalists, not quite someone who is a fundamentalist, but how they might become one, how they might be understood. I think those are the preferred stories that are expected. There are more, but those are a few that seem the most pronounced, the ones that I’ve seen."

"Chicago" by 'Ala Al-Aswani

Year of publication: 2007
Genre: novel
Setting and Time: Chicago and Egypt, present time
Themes: religion, immigration, international politics, multiculturalism, mixed marriages, civil rights

Warning: Mixing English and Italian is dangerous!

About the author: ‘Ala Al-Aswani was born in Egypt in 1957 and he is a member of a political movement called Kefaya (The Egyptian Movement for Change, which opposes president Mubarak and his policies). He trained as a dentist in Egypt and Chicago. His first novel, translated from Arabic as The Yacoubian Building (2002) was widely read in Egypt and the Middle East. It is an ironic depiction of modern Egyptian society at about the time of the first Gulf War (1990). His second novel, Chicago (2007) is set in the city in which the author has studied and is again a portrait of Egyptian society.

Plot

: In una Chicago mitica e solforosa troviamo una piccola comunità di egiziani in esilio, forgiata sul modello del dipartimento dell’Università di Chicago che l’autore ha conosciuto bene negli anni della formazione americana. In questo mondo claustrofobico e formicolante di vite, ‘Ala al-Aswani intreccia storie di esistenze che si cercano e si perdono. Sono esistenze strappate alla loro terra d’origine che vivono in un universo strano e straniero: la tentazione di conformarsi all’American way of life non è abbastanza. L’Egitto è lì, nel cuore di un’America traumatizzata dagli attentati terroristici dell’11 settembre. Quando viene annunciata la visita ufficiale del presidente egiziano a Chicago, si mette in moto il sistema di sicurezza dell’ambasciata, orchestrato dal temibile Safuat Shaker, che controlla e sorveglia tutti gli egiziani residenti in America.

Some thoughts: Ehm, I thought that this book hadn’t been translated into English, but I was wrong. Actually I saw an autographed copy on the bookshelves of a book shop in Piccadilly. I had started the review in Italian, so I’ll do a (dangerous) mix.
Mi è piaciuto parecchio questo libro: è un ritratto della società egiziana attraverso la comunità egiziana di una facoltà universitaria americana. C’è tutta una carrellata di personaggi contraddittori: dalla ragazza di campagna molto religiosa che finisce per rimanere incinta al di fuori del matrimonio, fino allo studente politicamente impegnato che però va a studiare nel paese che tanto odia, l’America. Sono contraddizioni che possono nascere quando cambia vita radicalmente, quando si lascia il proprio paese, islamico, povero e privo di libertà individuali, per andare in un paese che, teoricamente, dovrebbe essere laico, ricco e libero. Ma non tutte le cose vanno come ci si aspetta e quindi anche l’America si rivela un posto dove alcune libertà possono venire negate e dove c’è un’aura di odio latente per tutto ciò che viene percepito come diverso.
L’autore s’interessa in particolare della situazione politica egiziana: alcuni personaggi sono attivisti politici e la matrice autobiografica è abbastanza palese.
William Skidelsky of The Guardian reflects on the questions that may rise while you are reading this novel. For example, to what extent is the immigrant obliged to remain loyal to his or her old country? In a country like the US, where the immigrants were used to leave their previous lives behind, Muslims feel different, because their religion would ask them a lot more commitment. I didn’t like Al-Aswani’s pessimism: the book suggests that there is no real possibility of successfully transcending the cultural divide. Skidelsky is also very critic of the author’s depiction of America (read the article here), but I can’t tell, seen that I’ve never been there. In particular he thinks that Al-Aswani looses credibility with the story of professor Graham and Carol, a mixed couple that has to face the prejudice of people and employers. Angela Schader, of Neuer Zurcher Zeitung asks herself how could a work so ‘contemptuous of morality and patriotism’ escape Egyptian censorship authorities, considering that the book also exposes the discrimination against the Copts and an analysis of the advantages of the vibrator. Read her article here. I will soon post an article appeared on La Stampa on the matter of 'rebel Islam'.