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vincentmouton's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
Certainement pas mal mais j’ai quand-mème préféré Un complot de saltimbanques.
Certainement pas mal mais j’ai quand-mème préféré Un complot de saltimbanques.
ilse's review against another edition
4.0
In praise of slothfulness
Three brothers, Galal, Rafik and Serag, live together with their father Hafez and their wistful uncle Mustapha at the outskirts of Cairo. The family is well-known and highly regarded in the neighbourhood, as having elevated the art of laziness to another dimension. Legends go around on the oldest brother Galal that he has been sleeping for seven years, only waking up to eat. But as Oscar Wilde wrote, ‘to do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world’ and their somnambulist world pivoting around the delights of sleep as a drug of oblivion is threatened by the wish of the youngest brother, Serag to free himself from the smothering arms of sleep and to venture looking for work (the horror!). Also the plans of the father Hafez to remarry are alarming, as a woman can only cause trouble when coming into a house ruining a state of sleep established since eternity: 'Uncle Mustapha, why do you play the fool? A child would understand. How can we sleep with a woman in the house? A woman who runs in and out all day, arranging everything around her. She’ll want everything right and proper to impress the neighbours. She’ll begin by getting a maid. Imagine it, Uncle Mustapha, a maid in the house! It makes me tremble! Without counting all her relatives! They’ll come to visit us. We’ll have to get up and dress to meet them. We might even talk to them. What kind of life would that be, I ask you! Rafik, the middle brother, had once been on the verge of marrying the prostitute Imtissal, but could in time change his mind as such would have meant he would have to earn a living by working, which would have killed him.
By painting the indolent life of this ‘nest of Oblomovs’ (dixit the Dutch translator fittingly describes this bunch of arch sloths in her post-face to the book) the Egyptian-French writer Albert Cossery (1913–2008) derides work ethics, exposing society’s obsessive preoccupancy with work and ambition by creating a topsy-turvy world, where masterful inactivity is extolled and attributed high status and work is something to be shunned at all costs, as disgraceful and repulsive.
Particularly the dreamlike scenes in which the youngest, naïve Serag considers the (theoretical) possibility of work (how to know if it really exists if one has never seen it?) and so becomes the outlier in the family are sweetly absurdist, the inversion having optimal, ironic effect, for instance when his father gets wind of his audacious plans: 'What do I hear? You want to work! What do you dislike in this house? Ungrateful son! I have fed you and dressed for years and here are your thanks!'
Cossery’s tale is one of refusal of what he sees as a form of voluntary servitude, underpinned by a snappy, wayward view on freedom in which idleness is the ultimate wisdom and work is slavery, so-called progress bringing only subjugation. A labouring humanity is a trapped humanity. Possession means nothing, freedom means everything, and is there anything that curtails one’s freedom more than having to work to earn a living?
This novel is to be read with caution, it is not unlikely that one might hiccup with laughter here and there and I would recommend to make sure one can yawn ahead in peace and to have a pillow and a soft blanket at hand as the sleepiness of the brothers is pretty contagious(z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z).
Three brothers, Galal, Rafik and Serag, live together with their father Hafez and their wistful uncle Mustapha at the outskirts of Cairo. The family is well-known and highly regarded in the neighbourhood, as having elevated the art of laziness to another dimension. Legends go around on the oldest brother Galal that he has been sleeping for seven years, only waking up to eat. But as Oscar Wilde wrote, ‘to do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world’ and their somnambulist world pivoting around the delights of sleep as a drug of oblivion is threatened by the wish of the youngest brother, Serag to free himself from the smothering arms of sleep and to venture looking for work (the horror!). Also the plans of the father Hafez to remarry are alarming, as a woman can only cause trouble when coming into a house ruining a state of sleep established since eternity: 'Uncle Mustapha, why do you play the fool? A child would understand. How can we sleep with a woman in the house? A woman who runs in and out all day, arranging everything around her. She’ll want everything right and proper to impress the neighbours. She’ll begin by getting a maid. Imagine it, Uncle Mustapha, a maid in the house! It makes me tremble! Without counting all her relatives! They’ll come to visit us. We’ll have to get up and dress to meet them. We might even talk to them. What kind of life would that be, I ask you! Rafik, the middle brother, had once been on the verge of marrying the prostitute Imtissal, but could in time change his mind as such would have meant he would have to earn a living by working, which would have killed him.
By painting the indolent life of this ‘nest of Oblomovs’ (dixit the Dutch translator fittingly describes this bunch of arch sloths in her post-face to the book) the Egyptian-French writer Albert Cossery (1913–2008) derides work ethics, exposing society’s obsessive preoccupancy with work and ambition by creating a topsy-turvy world, where masterful inactivity is extolled and attributed high status and work is something to be shunned at all costs, as disgraceful and repulsive.
Particularly the dreamlike scenes in which the youngest, naïve Serag considers the (theoretical) possibility of work (how to know if it really exists if one has never seen it?) and so becomes the outlier in the family are sweetly absurdist, the inversion having optimal, ironic effect, for instance when his father gets wind of his audacious plans: 'What do I hear? You want to work! What do you dislike in this house? Ungrateful son! I have fed you and dressed for years and here are your thanks!'
Cossery’s tale is one of refusal of what he sees as a form of voluntary servitude, underpinned by a snappy, wayward view on freedom in which idleness is the ultimate wisdom and work is slavery, so-called progress bringing only subjugation. A labouring humanity is a trapped humanity. Possession means nothing, freedom means everything, and is there anything that curtails one’s freedom more than having to work to earn a living?
This novel is to be read with caution, it is not unlikely that one might hiccup with laughter here and there and I would recommend to make sure one can yawn ahead in peace and to have a pillow and a soft blanket at hand as the sleepiness of the brothers is pretty contagious(z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z).
sophielegarrec's review against another edition
4.0
Livre acheté à la librairie de l'Institut du Monde Arabe (sur les conseils de la fiche du libraire qui disait qu'il ferait s'étrangler les traders capitalistes ...) et commencé de suite à l'ombre des arbres du merveilleux jardin temporaire. Ce livre, outre effectivement le contre-pied formidable au capitalisme qu'il décrit, donne envie de s'abandonner au sommeil avec la langueur (tellement bien décrite) des personnages.
klimts15thchild's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mounefcm's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
vasilis's review
5.0
In het nawoord schrijft Mirjam de Veth over de personages in Cossery’s boeken:
Ze beheersen in hoge mate de kunst van het nietsdoen en slaan het schouwtoneel van het dagelijks leven geamuseerd en afstandelijk gade. De slaap is een staat van genade, verder is er nutteloos bedrijf, nietsontziende wreedheid en hartverscheurende domheid. Wie verstandig is zal zich aan het gewoel onttrekken en zich onderdompelen in weldadige rust.
En alsof dat niet genoeg is, hier nog het antwoord van Albert Cossery op de vraag of hij een optimist of pessimist is:
“Ik ben pessimistisch over de wereld, want wie nadenkt en intelligent is ziet in wat voor wereld we leven. Voor mezelf ben ik optimistisch, want het leven blijft een rijke bron van verwondering en plezier, daar hoef je niets voor te doen.”
Geweldig.
Het boek is dan ook prachtig.
saaarah's review against another edition
4.0
I wish there were more. I feel like "Laziness in the Fertile Valley" is just one part of a greater saga. What happens when Serag and Hodo meet up with the child in the city?
To me, this read like an allegory of sorts. I liked the remoteness of the work, looking in on rather than being among the characters. It is so lovely to be moved but not knocked over the head with anything too powerful. "Laziness in the Fertile Valley" presented a sterile sequence of events, in a similar veins as the removed tone of Camus' "L'Etranger." Looking forward to learning more about Cossery and his other works.
To me, this read like an allegory of sorts. I liked the remoteness of the work, looking in on rather than being among the characters. It is so lovely to be moved but not knocked over the head with anything too powerful. "Laziness in the Fertile Valley" presented a sterile sequence of events, in a similar veins as the removed tone of Camus' "L'Etranger." Looking forward to learning more about Cossery and his other works.