A review by sadiereadsagain
The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany
3.0
I read this book for the Booktube Prize 2022, Translated Works category, Octofinals. I ranked it 4th in its group of 6. My fellow judges agreed, and this book did not move forward to the quarter finals.
I was going to read [b:The Yacoubian Building|128711|The Yacoubian Building|Alaa Al Aswany|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348797639l/128711._SY75_.jpg|563704] by this author last year, but ran out of time. A friend had read it and said the misogyny in it was pretty awful, so I was glad to have swerved it. So I was disappointed to see this author pop up in my judging group.
This book tells the story of the Arab Spring in Egypt and the subsequent revolution in 2011, as seen through the eyes of a cast of different characters. We have the corrupt politician, his daughter who breaks ranks to follow a man she loves into the protests, an idealistic trade unionist, a passionate young teacher and a washed-up actor who gets drawn into the movement in a mid-life crisis fuelled desire to do something. Through their different experiences, the events are reported and we get an insight into the country at that time, and the motivations of those fighting for democracy (or not).
The plot is what saved this book, for me. I am always interested in learning about other cultures and people, and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the revolution and the different groups of people in Egypt. And the writing helped that along too, being as it was accessible and often scathing. However, I could definitely see the misogyny my friend had warned me about - women in this book are simply props for the men, and the way they are written about (in particular through the eyes of mid-life crisis guy) are repugnant. And in general, male as well as female, the characters are quite one-dimensional. Given that this was a passionate uprising with high stakes for the people involved...I didn't care what happened to any of them.
I'm hopeless at DNFing, and will stagger on with most books, and so if I hadn't been obliged to read this for the Prize (but for some unknown reason had still picked it up) I probably would still have finished it. But I wasn't hugely impressed with this book.
I was going to read [b:The Yacoubian Building|128711|The Yacoubian Building|Alaa Al Aswany|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348797639l/128711._SY75_.jpg|563704] by this author last year, but ran out of time. A friend had read it and said the misogyny in it was pretty awful, so I was glad to have swerved it. So I was disappointed to see this author pop up in my judging group.
This book tells the story of the Arab Spring in Egypt and the subsequent revolution in 2011, as seen through the eyes of a cast of different characters. We have the corrupt politician, his daughter who breaks ranks to follow a man she loves into the protests, an idealistic trade unionist, a passionate young teacher and a washed-up actor who gets drawn into the movement in a mid-life crisis fuelled desire to do something. Through their different experiences, the events are reported and we get an insight into the country at that time, and the motivations of those fighting for democracy (or not).
The plot is what saved this book, for me. I am always interested in learning about other cultures and people, and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the revolution and the different groups of people in Egypt. And the writing helped that along too, being as it was accessible and often scathing. However, I could definitely see the misogyny my friend had warned me about - women in this book are simply props for the men, and the way they are written about (in particular through the eyes of mid-life crisis guy) are repugnant. And in general, male as well as female, the characters are quite one-dimensional. Given that this was a passionate uprising with high stakes for the people involved...I didn't care what happened to any of them.
I'm hopeless at DNFing, and will stagger on with most books, and so if I hadn't been obliged to read this for the Prize (but for some unknown reason had still picked it up) I probably would still have finished it. But I wasn't hugely impressed with this book.