Reviews

The Quarter by Naguib Mahfouz

halacasso's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

quick and easy read
didn't really feel anything while reading though idk maybe the meanings flew over my head

gills_2022's review

fast-paced

3.0

chrysalis11's review

3.0

Fascinating peek into community/quarter living in Cairo.

thatothernigeriangirl's review

4.0

29/06/20 Reread : After rereading this book, I have been able to pinpoint the reoccurrence of the concept of the unknown and fate as a common ground in every vignette. Still not sure about the meaning of some of them

joanzoya's review

adventurous hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thepermageek's review

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A great introduction to this Nobel Laureate legend! Makes me want to read the rest of his work now!

amrtheegyptian's review

funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

zoemitchell's review

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

wellfedpages's review

hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

A mighty microcosm

Minutiae of meaning

Tiny parables teeming with possibilities

A slice of life

Evocative of oral stories

Old wives tales

Your grandma’s bedtime sagas

Had she still been telling them when you grew up

A simple form perfected with precision

Economical words packed with meditations

No frills

No lyrical prose

Not even any descriptions of the place - The Quarter

Naguib Mahfouz writes from the vantage point of an old storyteller on the street corner

who has told a thousand tales about the place established his setting long ago

He doesn’t need to reacquaint us with this worn out world

Either we have read his older stories

Or we have read other writers from Egypt

Or watched films & shows

Or flipped through old magazines

Or been assuaged online with images of Cairo

He trusts us to conjure up an image of this lively dusty old quarter from memory & imagination

What he is more interested in are the people who inhabit this space

What moves them

What muddles them

What motivates them

Their 

joys

sorrows

trials

tribulations

jealousies

rivalries

loves

losses

grief

illusions

& banalities

And perhaps a hint of nostalgia for the places, people & a way of life that is slipping away with the sands of time

Yet he manages to glean their quiet beauty from the few grains that he is still clutching on to

There are parts which are tinged with sexism & puritanism

But this is reflective of both the time when these stories were written - 3 or 4 decades ago

And the society where these tales stem from

One where beauty, meekness & piety were/are considered the biggest virtues of a woman

That’s annoying

But there’s still a motley of characters shedding light on all corners of society through these meandering lanes

The broken

The beaten

The believers

The hypocrites

The kind souls

The fake showmans

The arrogant

The greedy

The jealous & insecure

The Shakespearian jesters

The wise grey souls

The sanity of the insane

The insanity of the normalised

There is so much to unearth in these 18 tiny tales discovered in a drawer after his death

You can keep looking at them again & again

And discover a new facet each time

He had so much to sayand he said it so beautifully

Also read the foreword by Elif Shafak where she tells the interesting story of how she discovered Mahfouz’s work, the introduction by the translator Roger Allen

& Mahfouz’s own Nobel Prize speech at the end of the book

He points out many things

How the burden of equality lies on the more privileged

Every life matters

Creativity does not discriminate by race, class, gender or geographical location

Real humanity is not just caring for those who are like us & around us, but those who are different & far away

We should never lose hope

Peace is possible

Or so he believed

But above all he raised his voice against the inequalities, injustices, discrimination & despotism that he saw around him

And inspires us to do the same

Sometimes all you need is one voice to speak the truth

And a thousand echoes follow

cookieandhanna's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

i spoke too soon … :/
i don’t know what i was expecting when i read “unfinished stories” but it wasn’t this. nonetheless, the last two pieces, “tawhida” and mahfouz’s nobel prize speech were very much worth it and would have given this 5 stars if it was only those two stories tbh
[side note: i also LOVED the picture of the actual stories in mahfouz’s handwriting. i couldn’t read it but that was just such a nice touch]

pre-reading
im sorry, short stories by naguib mahfouz translated by my favourite translator AND a foreward from a recent favourite author?? i'm in love already