fatamo's review against another edition
3.0
I was disappointed with the writer, because this book clearly had so much potential. In fact, it was fulfilled in almost every way a book can be successful, except for one: the writing.
Soueif clearly knows HOW to write a story. The breaking up of the narrative across different characters, using different media, even across different times, was executed perfectly. I never felt confused about the moving back and forth from the 19th to the 20th century. This probably is in no small part due to masterful editing, I can see that.
Soueif ran the risk of becoming overly symbolic, but she didn't. I think that often happens with Arab writers, but I don't think that was the case here. The plot was thrilling, it was exciting to know what would happen to Anna, seen through the eyes of her descendants, as she discovered a new culture. Her learning the Arabic language was a great way to shed some light on Arabic culture.
So what didn't I like?
The writing.
It's odd. My eyes were reading the words in English, but my brain was hearing them in Arabic. That was the only way it made sense to me. But this makes me angry, because the book is meant to be read by English speakers, and English speakers will not understand why the hell she is being so florid and delicate with the language.
It really felt like a translated text, and not a good one. I understand that Soueif had a conundrum here. She could either write in a way that was more fitting to the English language, but that would take away some of the spirit of the writing, and compromise her likely wish to convey Arab culture in its entirety, this including the language. Or she could write in a way that, if translated into Arabic, would make total sense, and therefore bring the English speaking reader as close as possible to speaking Arabic without actually doing so. She clearly opted for the latter.
I don't think that was a good choice though. Or at least it was one which was not well executed. There was too much going on about love and deep desire, the expressions that each person used throughout were so baroque in their detail. When these phrases are used in Arabic, it doesn't seem over the top. It seems beautiful and natural, and I really think its one of the most lovely and poetic languages. But when its translated so literally into English, it looks forced and just not nice.
I'm disappointed! This had the potential to be a fantastic book. I'm sure it's done a lot towards enhancing cultural understanding. It hit all the major themes that are prevalent in Arab life, especially in Egyptian life. Politics, colonialism, dealing with Arab identity with strong influence from another force, the struggle for independence on many levels, womens issues, what it means to be Egyptian. And of course love. Love freakin' everywhere.
I loved when she wrote about politics. The bits where she was discussing, through her characters, the political issues that were being faced in the story, I felt as though it were being written by another person. The dialogue came alive like it couldn't anywhere else in the book, the content was fascinating, the energy with which it was expressed was contagious. I would become at turns enraged and saddened, then hopeful, and enraged again. This only happens to me when I hear Arabs (who know what theyre talking about) discuss politics. She's very good at this, and I feel like she has a much clearer idea of this then of love.
I hope Soueif moves more towards political stories or non-fiction, because I feel like that is where her strengths lies. I think Soueif loves her characters too much to let anything too terrible happen to them too. That's probably what made me end up hating everyone in it a little bit. Seriously, I did not care much for anyone in that book.
So:
1 star for the plot and the whole political aspect which I found thrilling.
1 star for the narrative which was well planned and nicely broken up not to appear boring or confusing (I think so).
1 star for the amazing editing work that must have gone into this.
Which leaves me with the verdict of 3 stars. I wish I could just give it a littttttle bit more, but everytime I think of that writing, I get frustrated all over again.
Soueif clearly knows HOW to write a story. The breaking up of the narrative across different characters, using different media, even across different times, was executed perfectly. I never felt confused about the moving back and forth from the 19th to the 20th century. This probably is in no small part due to masterful editing, I can see that.
Soueif ran the risk of becoming overly symbolic, but she didn't. I think that often happens with Arab writers, but I don't think that was the case here. The plot was thrilling, it was exciting to know what would happen to Anna, seen through the eyes of her descendants, as she discovered a new culture. Her learning the Arabic language was a great way to shed some light on Arabic culture.
So what didn't I like?
The writing.
It's odd. My eyes were reading the words in English, but my brain was hearing them in Arabic. That was the only way it made sense to me. But this makes me angry, because the book is meant to be read by English speakers, and English speakers will not understand why the hell she is being so florid and delicate with the language.
It really felt like a translated text, and not a good one. I understand that Soueif had a conundrum here. She could either write in a way that was more fitting to the English language, but that would take away some of the spirit of the writing, and compromise her likely wish to convey Arab culture in its entirety, this including the language. Or she could write in a way that, if translated into Arabic, would make total sense, and therefore bring the English speaking reader as close as possible to speaking Arabic without actually doing so. She clearly opted for the latter.
I don't think that was a good choice though. Or at least it was one which was not well executed. There was too much going on about love and deep desire, the expressions that each person used throughout were so baroque in their detail. When these phrases are used in Arabic, it doesn't seem over the top. It seems beautiful and natural, and I really think its one of the most lovely and poetic languages. But when its translated so literally into English, it looks forced and just not nice.
I'm disappointed! This had the potential to be a fantastic book. I'm sure it's done a lot towards enhancing cultural understanding. It hit all the major themes that are prevalent in Arab life, especially in Egyptian life. Politics, colonialism, dealing with Arab identity with strong influence from another force, the struggle for independence on many levels, womens issues, what it means to be Egyptian. And of course love. Love freakin' everywhere.
I loved when she wrote about politics. The bits where she was discussing, through her characters, the political issues that were being faced in the story, I felt as though it were being written by another person. The dialogue came alive like it couldn't anywhere else in the book, the content was fascinating, the energy with which it was expressed was contagious. I would become at turns enraged and saddened, then hopeful, and enraged again. This only happens to me when I hear Arabs (who know what theyre talking about) discuss politics. She's very good at this, and I feel like she has a much clearer idea of this then of love.
I hope Soueif moves more towards political stories or non-fiction, because I feel like that is where her strengths lies. I think Soueif loves her characters too much to let anything too terrible happen to them too. That's probably what made me end up hating everyone in it a little bit. Seriously, I did not care much for anyone in that book.
So:
1 star for the plot and the whole political aspect which I found thrilling.
1 star for the narrative which was well planned and nicely broken up not to appear boring or confusing (I think so).
1 star for the amazing editing work that must have gone into this.
Which leaves me with the verdict of 3 stars. I wish I could just give it a littttttle bit more, but everytime I think of that writing, I get frustrated all over again.
maggiemoore's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really good book and I would have given it four stars but some of the historical bits got a bit slow for me. I love reading about Egypt, especially history, and the other bits of this book were great fun.
lizzieaxxe's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
worldlibraries's review against another edition
2.0
There is a good book in here. Indeed, the potential good book could have been extracted and everything else left behind. I found I had to will myself to finish this book and more than half of my friends couldn't finish it. That tells you the boring parts were too much. I found reading this book made me want to write a structural outline of how to tell this story, as the narrative would switch from one century to another and I frequently found I had to reread passages to figure out who was talking. The translator is unnamed. I found some parts of the story seemed to have been translated by someone with a whole higher level of skill than other parts.
Next, to criticize character development. Anna is a lovely character. It is her cross-cultural love story that makes up the interesting part of the story. I found her too perfect though. There aren't many expats in the world who can turn their back COMPLETELY on their home culture and let the family life alone of their new culture be their entire world. I found the idea of that unrealistic. Another character is Isabel, the American who wants to have a cross-cultural relationship with Omar, who is not willing. She gets pregnant and wills a relationship to be. Isabel is an idiot. It made it hard as a reader to identify with her.
Secondly, to criticize subplots that go nowhere. Incest was suggested to have occured in this story. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It most assuredly doesn't draw a reader in to the potential relationship between two people in the book, if one of the people might be ... SPOILER. I didn't understand why the author included this subplot. Is this a common happening in Egypt? I can only conclude that must be so, as why was it included? It sure makes readers recoil. I don't think that's the emotion writers of love stories normally go for.
Another thing that seemed very real in this book is that there is no reward in a place like Egypt for trying to reform it. Since free speech isn't a part of the culture, Egyptians attempting change are silenced in the worst possible ways.
I read this book on a Kindle. One thing Amazon could have done to enhance the enjoyment of reading this book is to have Arabic words used in the text linked to their definitions in the glossary. English language readers don't have Arabic dictionaries loaded on their Kindle so the definitions of Arabic words continued to go unknown unless the reader was 1) aware of the glossary in the back of the book (unlikely), and 2) willing to do the work each time of looking the word up when a link would have made the whole thing super easy.
Next, to criticize character development. Anna is a lovely character. It is her cross-cultural love story that makes up the interesting part of the story. I found her too perfect though. There aren't many expats in the world who can turn their back COMPLETELY on their home culture and let the family life alone of their new culture be their entire world. I found the idea of that unrealistic. Another character is Isabel, the American who wants to have a cross-cultural relationship with Omar, who is not willing. She gets pregnant and wills a relationship to be. Isabel is an idiot. It made it hard as a reader to identify with her.
Secondly, to criticize subplots that go nowhere. Incest was suggested to have occured in this story. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It most assuredly doesn't draw a reader in to the potential relationship between two people in the book, if one of the people might be ... SPOILER. I didn't understand why the author included this subplot. Is this a common happening in Egypt? I can only conclude that must be so, as why was it included? It sure makes readers recoil. I don't think that's the emotion writers of love stories normally go for.
Another thing that seemed very real in this book is that there is no reward in a place like Egypt for trying to reform it. Since free speech isn't a part of the culture, Egyptians attempting change are silenced in the worst possible ways.
I read this book on a Kindle. One thing Amazon could have done to enhance the enjoyment of reading this book is to have Arabic words used in the text linked to their definitions in the glossary. English language readers don't have Arabic dictionaries loaded on their Kindle so the definitions of Arabic words continued to go unknown unless the reader was 1) aware of the glossary in the back of the book (unlikely), and 2) willing to do the work each time of looking the word up when a link would have made the whole thing super easy.
ecruikshank's review against another edition
5.0
“—and there, on the table under her bedroom window, lies the voice that has set her dreaming again. Fragments of a life lived a long, long time ago. Across a hundred years the woman’s voice speaks to her—so clearly that she cannot believe it is not possible to pick up her pen and answer.”
THE MAP OF LOVE is a gorgeously written multigenerational family saga set in parallel timelines. (If that’s not sufficient bookish catnip, I don’t know what to tell you.)
Amal and Isabel are distant cousins who discover a trunk filled with artifacts from Isabel’s great-grandmother Anna and begin piecing together Anna’s story through her diaries and letters. A century earlier, the recently widowed Lady Anna has traveled to Egypt to explore a world she has previously admired only through paintings and her father-in-law’s stories; she becomes enmeshed in Egyptian life while falling in love with Sharif Pasha, a respected and powerful Egyptian lawyer. Throughout the book, characters in both timelines influence and react to historical events and passionately debate the matters of the day.
Soueif is a brilliant writer. She lingers over the striking landscape and quotidian details of Cairo life, weaving the setting into a rich tapestry. I fell in love with the complex, fully realized characters—my initial Goodreads review was simply, “I would spend 500 more pages with this family.” Soueif brilliantly illustrates, on a micro and macro level, the challenges of attempting to understand another culture and the tragedy that can arise from the inability to perfectly translate across cultural divides. Issues of colonialism and imperialism are at the forefront of, and enhance, both timelines.
I have seen comparisons to The English Patient and Possession, both of which resonate with me. I am eager to pick up In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, which seems to have a similar premise.
THE MAP OF LOVE is a gorgeously written multigenerational family saga set in parallel timelines. (If that’s not sufficient bookish catnip, I don’t know what to tell you.)
Amal and Isabel are distant cousins who discover a trunk filled with artifacts from Isabel’s great-grandmother Anna and begin piecing together Anna’s story through her diaries and letters. A century earlier, the recently widowed Lady Anna has traveled to Egypt to explore a world she has previously admired only through paintings and her father-in-law’s stories; she becomes enmeshed in Egyptian life while falling in love with Sharif Pasha, a respected and powerful Egyptian lawyer. Throughout the book, characters in both timelines influence and react to historical events and passionately debate the matters of the day.
Soueif is a brilliant writer. She lingers over the striking landscape and quotidian details of Cairo life, weaving the setting into a rich tapestry. I fell in love with the complex, fully realized characters—my initial Goodreads review was simply, “I would spend 500 more pages with this family.” Soueif brilliantly illustrates, on a micro and macro level, the challenges of attempting to understand another culture and the tragedy that can arise from the inability to perfectly translate across cultural divides. Issues of colonialism and imperialism are at the forefront of, and enhance, both timelines.
I have seen comparisons to The English Patient and Possession, both of which resonate with me. I am eager to pick up In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, which seems to have a similar premise.
esraa77's review against another edition
4.0
الرواية بشكل عام لطيفة جدا وجوها حلو بس حسيت إني فقدت متعه القراءة مع الجزء الأخير من الرواية... ومن اكتر الحاجات اللي ممكن تجذبني لرواية إنها تكون قادرة توصف الأحداث والشخصيات في سياق العصر وتفاعلهم معاه ودا كان حاضر بقوة في الرواية خاصة وإن مصر كانت تعيش حراك سياسي واجتماعي وثقافي كبير.... رائعة!
من اكتر الفقرات اللي معلقة معايا وواقفة عندها ⬇⬇⬇
من اكتر الفقرات اللي معلقة معايا وواقفة عندها ⬇⬇⬇