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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Breaking the silence
Monthly supplement
Light on the underground
A quoi rêvent les loups (What Wolves Dream Of), Yasmina Khadra, Paris: Julliard 1999. pp274Into the abyss
Yasmina Khadra
All in the detail
Masters of the Trade: Crafts and Craftspeople in Cairo, Pascale Ghazaleh,1750-1850, Cairo Papers in Social Science Volume 22, Number 3, Fall 1999. pp157A serious spinster
Passionate Nomad, Jane Fletcher Geneisse, London: Chatto and Windus, 1999. pp402Written by camera
Ayam Al-Dimoqratiya: Al-Nisa' Al-Misriyat wa Homoum Al-Watan (Days of Democracy: Egyptian Women and National Elections), Ateyyat El-Abnoudy, Cairo: Kassem Press, 1999. pp197Bizarre, perhaps
The Bazaar, Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World, Text by Walter M. Weiss and photographs by Kurt-Michael Westermann, London: Thames & Hudson, 1999. pp256All about Egypt
Egypt: Nile, Desert, and People, Wolfgang and Rosel Jahn, Trans. by Manuela Kunkel and Ian Portman. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 1999. pp191 + 300 colour illustrationsThrough the mask of Yasmine
Layali Okhra (Other Nights), Mohamed El-Bisatie, Beirut: Al-Aadab Publishing House, 2000. pp180Photohgraphs of Egypt and the Holy land, Francis Frith, Zeitouna Publishing, 1999 --see caption--
To the editor
At a glance
A shorthand guide to the month compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani* Hikmet Al-Missriyeen (The Wisdom of Egyptians), introduced and edited by Mohamed El-Sayed Said, Cairo: The Cairo Centre for Human Rights, 1999. pp273
* Ashr Sanawat maa Farouq (Ten Years with Farouq), Karim Thabit, Cairo: Al-Shorouq, 2000. pp472 (Adel Hammouda and Me), Ahmed Fouad Negm, Cairo: Zeinab Publishing House, 2000. pp108
* Mirayat Al-Dhat Al-Okhra (Mirror of the Other Self), Sabri Hafiz, Cairo: General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, Aswat Adabiya Series, 1999. pp365
* Moqarabat Al-Abad (Nearing Eternity), Gamal El-Ghitani, Cairo: Nahdit Misr Publications, 2000. pp96
* Al-Kotob: Wighat Nazar (Books: Viewpoints), monthly magazine, issue no. 13, February 2000 Cairo: The Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publication
* Al-Fonoun Al-Sha'biya (The Folk Arts), a specialised periodical, issue no.58-9, Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation
* Al-Osour Al-Jadida (New Eras), monthly magazine, issue no. 5, February 2000, Cairo: Sinai Publishing House
* Nizwa, quarterly magazine, issue no.11, Oman: The Oman Institution for Journalism, Publication and Mass Communication
* Al-Hilal, monthly magazine, issue no. 2, February 2000, Cairo: Al-Hilal Publishing House
Books is a monthly supplement of Al-Ahram Weekly appearing every second Thursday of the month. We welcome contributions and letters on subjects raised in this supplement. Material may be edited for length and clarity; and should be addressed to Mona Anis, Books Editor, Al-Ahram Weekly, Galaa St., Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt; Faz: +202 578 6089; E-mail: m.anis@ahram.org.eg
For advertising call +202-5780233; Fax +202 394 1866To see other book supplements go to the ARCHIVES index.
Illustrations courtesy of International Commitee of the Red Cross
"Folk drawings and tales", Cairo, 1996
Sir- I enjoyed reading David Tresilian's review of Les Couleurs de l'infamie, the Franco-Egyptian writer Albert Cossery's purportedly last work, in the November issue of the Al-Ahram Weekly Book Supplement. Besides expounding on Cossery's unique philosophy of indolence, how this has affected the writer's life and work and offering an insight into his fictional world, the review interestingly mentioned that this wittiest of octogenarians was not only to give up writing but was also to remain silent for the rest of his life: "Cossery, now aged 86 and unable to speak following a throat operation two years ago, has given up writing"; and while in hospital he "had apparently prepared an active tactic to respond without too much effort to those enquiring after his health in the form of small pieces of paper on which were written the usual responses." This is however already a thing of the past, for in the 22 January issue of the London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Hayat, Cossery gave journalist Rola Al-Zein a fascinating interview during which, when he was unable to make himself heard, he willingly jotted down his responses time and time again in the journalist's notebook.
The interview was conducted in the Café la Fleur where Cossery has taken his afternoon coffee every day since he first left Egypt for Paris in 1945, a short distance away from the Hotel Louisian where he now lives permanently. True to form, Cossery started off by declaring that he couldn't possibly write anything more after insulting everybody. In the interview, he speaks of women, of moving to St Germain-des-Prés after spending seven years in a small flat in Montmartre in order to be closer to such friends as Albert Camus and Giacometti and to the women he would be chasing. Living in a hotel, he maintains, is in this sense and others what has ultimately kept him alive for so long. He lives in Paris the way his landowning father and grandfather lived in Egypt -- jobless, relaxed, enjoying the money they were born into and refining high-brow diversions of all kinds. There are no ulterior motives or hidden agendas -- just that. And the fact that the writer has kept it up is certainly an achievement to be marvelled at, whatever the condition of his vocal chords.
Wafaa Abdel-Azim,
Madinet Nasr, CairoA textual Iraq
Sir- I have been following your Books Supplement with great interest and would like to point out my admiration for the variety of the titles you include. Regarding coverage of the Arab literary scene in particular, your supplement has consistently provided a wide-ranging bull-eye's view of literary events and major publications -- perhaps a little eclectic but nonetheless indispensible.
Ferial J Ghazoul's review of Dunya Mikhail's memoirs, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (published in the November issue) provided a fascinating perspective on new Iraqi writing, suggesting that, despite an ongoing and impossible political dilemma, the power of individual solitude and national self-awareness can triumph in the end. Death and war can often drastically interfere, but whichever way we react to them we can always turn our misfortunes into a song whose tune resembles the rhythms of our daily lives. Mikhail's lyricism is ultimately a young person's song to her shattered and suffering homeland.
But fortunately you did not stop at this. Ghazoul's review was duely followed by extensive coverage of arguably the greatest Arab literary event of the year -- novelist Abdel-Rahman Monief's momentous three-part novel, Ard Al-Sawad. Drawing on the history of the country and his own maternal roots, Monief managed to evoke the Iraq of Dawoud Pasha in a particularly relevant and vital way. And the political, social and cultural questions raised by the novel constitute -- as opposed to Mikhail's diaries -- a veteran's epic tribute to a grand Arab country whose current misfortunes, at least in part, reflect the saddening realities of the contemporary Arab World while pointing out, in depicting the humorous resilience of the Iraqi people, the possibility of a long-awaited renaissance.
Sayed Abdel-Aziz
Ain Shams, Cairo
