A review by siria
A Dog with No Tail by Hamdi Abu Golayyel

2.0

I appreciated what this novella was trying to do—to examine what it means to be a Bedouin in the modern Egyptian state, a rural migrant in the big city, a struggling author trying to come to terms with one's identity and one's aspirations—but I just was not able to engage with it. None of the characters ever felt real for me, and I frequently confused one with another. Abu Golayyel's style is determinedly post-modern—the book is part novella, part collection of short stories, with its tales told and retold out of chronological order, full of gaps and (unintentional?) contradictions. I was never even certain when the novel was taking place. At first, references seemed to put it in the 70s/80s, but then there were mentions of things which made it seem more like it was taking place in the present—and even an admiring reference to Osama bin Laden which made my eyebrows rise up to meet my hairline. As a writing experiment, I'm sure A Dog With No Tail is very sophisticated—it's just not for me.