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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 February - 3 March 1999 Issue No. 418 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 February - 3 March 1999 Issue No. 418
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Fathi's chronicles
By Naguib Mahfouz
I met the late Fathi Ghanem for the first time in the '50s, when I was still holding my weekly gatherings at Casino Opera. He was a well-mannered young man, very interested in modern literature. He would sit with us and take part in our discussions. So I got to know him as a person before I read his work. Then I started to read his novels, which were published years after these first encounters. I found his style outstanding. He was definitely one of the great novelists.
We wrote a screenplay together, but, oddly enough given that we were both widely read, the film was never made. Zaki Tuleimat was to have directed, and Fathi Ghanem had suggested that I work on the screenplay with him. The film was never actually made because the producer was not sure that Zaki Tuleimat's great talent in theatre extended to cinema. So things just fizzled out eventually.
After that, I did not meet Fathi Ghanem again. During the early years of the Revolution, he turned to journalism. He was promoted and had many responsibilities, which left him little time for our gatherings. I still followed whatever he was doing, albeit from afar, reading what he wrote, and respecting him as much as I always had. I was quite upset that he had never been given the State Merit Award, after all that he had done, and was therefore overjoyed when he received in 1994.
Fathi Ghanem's fluidity of style was characterised by his ability to combine journalistic writing with the talent of a true storyteller, like Ihsan Abdel-Quddous.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
