A review by dejnozkova
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
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.