ellieanor's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
aldwynreads's review
4.0
This is a story of different people living in one building. We look into the past and present of the building and its inhabitants and understand how each person takes decisions that without the story, could seem shocking or impossible. I wish there was more written by this Egyptian author.
soph2962's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.0
cecilie_flohr's review against another edition
medium-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
3.25
This is a book I read for school and while it isn't something I would usually pick up myself, it was an interesting read that I enjoyed.
I found the characters to be interesting and well-written. They were complex and felt like real people.
The book follows multiple different characters, and often when that happens there is a POV that you just want to skip. That didn't happen with this book, which I am pleasantly surprised by.
I found the characters to be interesting and well-written. They were complex and felt like real people.
The book follows multiple different characters, and often when that happens there is a POV that you just want to skip. That didn't happen with this book, which I am pleasantly surprised by.
kiba_can's review against another edition
medium-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
3.75
goodcook07's review
3.0
This was a different sort of book for me, but something made me pick it up at the library and I was glad that I did. It was an interesting read about a part of the world that we normally don't read much about. A lot of tragedy in the lives of the characters though - not a book if you like happy endings.
thegabecole's review
2.0
Not my favorite read. The characters and their stories were interesting enough, but the writing style and voice just wasn't my cup of tea.
dejnozkova's review
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I enjoyed that this book covered many different facets of Egyptian culture and showed the many faces of the country, especially during such a tumultuous time, so this was an eye-opening book as far as outlining societal attitudes and political opinions. The book is solidly written, and for having so many characters it did a good job of balancing vices and virtues in the characters, making them believable. I think that the sexuality in the novel (which many find gratuitous or excessive) actually works well to ground many of the characters and reminds us that they’re human beings; sexuality in the novel is used to bind the characters together and level them as equals. It also contradicts a western view of “Islamic” societies being inherently conservative and devoid of love and passion —a view which goes against history in the first place but whatever 🙃 —which I think would make the average westerner think twice about their perception of Egyptians and their neighbors.
I didn’t rate this book so highly because I personally felt the writing style didn’t hold my attention. It wasn’t that it was bad, but it wasn’t intriguing to my tastes I guess. I also had a hard time getting engrossed in any of the characters because there were so many of them and the chapters weren’t marked with whose perspective I was reading, so I spent a lot of time trying to remember what happened to who and trying to figure out what was going on from chapter to chapter. I understand the purpose for so many perspectives and the role they played in the novel but it just made things confusing for me, which made it harder to attach to any of the narratives whole-heartedly. I think with a novel like this trying to highlight the diversity of a community and the many sides to a conflict, it might be better to write a series of short stories or vignettes that are somehow related to each other in the end rather than constantly flipping from person to person every other chapter.
Overall I do understand why The Yacoubian Building is held in high esteem in contemporary Egyptian literature, it just wasn’t entirely to my tastes.
I didn’t rate this book so highly because I personally felt the writing style didn’t hold my attention. It wasn’t that it was bad, but it wasn’t intriguing to my tastes I guess. I also had a hard time getting engrossed in any of the characters because there were so many of them and the chapters weren’t marked with whose perspective I was reading, so I spent a lot of time trying to remember what happened to who and trying to figure out what was going on from chapter to chapter. I understand the purpose for so many perspectives and the role they played in the novel but it just made things confusing for me, which made it harder to attach to any of the narratives whole-heartedly. I think with a novel like this trying to highlight the diversity of a community and the many sides to a conflict, it might be better to write a series of short stories or vignettes that are somehow related to each other in the end rather than constantly flipping from person to person every other chapter.
Overall I do understand why The Yacoubian Building is held in high esteem in contemporary Egyptian literature, it just wasn’t entirely to my tastes.
siria's review against another edition
2.0
I'm of two minds about The Yacoubian Building. Al Aswany has created a rich and vibrant community of characters, who inhabit a world full of conflicting social and political forces. And yet... either the original prose needed some more editing, or the translation was not very good. Tenses shifted randomly and disorientingly in the middle of paragraphs, and some of the dialogue seemed stilted. The plot was quite predictable, and the ending rather anti-climactic. All of these elements would have made for a read that was merely unsatisfying, but Al Aswany's unsubtle and shallow characterisations (particularly of his female characters) and frankly offensive characterisation of homosexuals and the 'cause' of their sexuality really disquieted me. Over-rated.