Just by reading the prologue, I was won over immediately. It has been a very long time since I read a good book. Each page that I read, I pored on each word very slowly in case I miss any of it. Every word is so important and crucial to this great literary work and I just wanted to drink it in. (Unlike some other books which you can speed read and still get the gist of what is happening).
What inspired the writer to write this book, he wrote it exactly how he was inspired in the first place. One day while walking through downtown Cairo, he saw a building which was in the process of being torn down. The buidling was being dissected and was to be torn down in sections. The walls of the building had been stripped bare and he could see into the different apartments and the various personal effects which were left behind by the previous tenants.
Al Aswany wrote about the inhabitants of Yacoubian Building which represented the different segments of the Egyptian society. As I am no expert of modern day Egypt, I suspect the building itself was symbolic in its representation of Egypt. Yacoubian Building which by the way a real landmark in Egypt, was fictitiously dressed up in the book. The writer talked about the building in its heyday in all its glory as it was inspired by French architecture just like most buildings were in the 19th century. Prominent people used to live in this apartments but as time passed, the building begun to lose its shine and deteriorated. On top of the roof, there were individual rooms which were allocated to each apartment owner for use as storage (think parking lot). However it now had been sublet to poor families which used the tiny store rooms as their homes.
The book talks about corruption, social changes and religion, among many other things. It is something most of us could identify with, despite our differences. The one thing I found most striking about this book is the order among chaos.
What inspired the writer to write this book, he wrote it exactly how he was inspired in the first place. One day while walking through downtown Cairo, he saw a building which was in the process of being torn down. The buidling was being dissected and was to be torn down in sections. The walls of the building had been stripped bare and he could see into the different apartments and the various personal effects which were left behind by the previous tenants.
Al Aswany wrote about the inhabitants of Yacoubian Building which represented the different segments of the Egyptian society. As I am no expert of modern day Egypt, I suspect the building itself was symbolic in its representation of Egypt. Yacoubian Building which by the way a real landmark in Egypt, was fictitiously dressed up in the book. The writer talked about the building in its heyday in all its glory as it was inspired by French architecture just like most buildings were in the 19th century. Prominent people used to live in this apartments but as time passed, the building begun to lose its shine and deteriorated. On top of the roof, there were individual rooms which were allocated to each apartment owner for use as storage (think parking lot). However it now had been sublet to poor families which used the tiny store rooms as their homes.
The book talks about corruption, social changes and religion, among many other things. It is something most of us could identify with, despite our differences. The one thing I found most striking about this book is the order among chaos.
2 comments:
Poe, I think once I accidentally watched the movie on ASTRO (the free arab channel, jangan gelak). I stumbled upon it maybe because of the 1950s props..maybe..
sorry but KAKAKAKA... didn't know there's a free arab channel. but yes, the movie though made in this new century is bit dated.
haven't had chance to watch the film but saw trailer on youtube. but the book is a MUST READ.
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