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Title: Children of the Alley : A Novel by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0-385-26473-9 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 18 October, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Colorful Tapestry of Stories
Comment: Children of the Alley is an incredible collection of stories about the lives of the descendants of an Egyptian man, Gabalawi, who takes on God-like significance as his children populate the alley that grows up surrounding his gated mansion. The novel was originally published in Arabic in 1959, under the title Awlad haratina. The English version, published in 1996, was translated by Peter Theroux.
The novel is broken into five distinct "stories," each focused on the life of one member of the Gabalawi family or his descendants. The first story introduces Gabalawi himself, and his cruel sense of justice which ultimately banishes both of his sons into the desert surrounding the mansion. This sets the stage for the evolution of the alley and the feuds that would eventually develop between the sons and their own families as they seek out ways to return to the ideal of life as it had been lived inside the estate gates.
Mahfouz weaves a lovely tale following successive generations through their triumphs and sufferings, exploring the importance of hope and spirituality, morals, justice and a people's sense of history in the face of constant opression by gangs. Each story focuses on the emergence of a "savior" who delivers the alley's residents from the evil gang rulers, establishing peaceful, prosperous eras. But, after each great savior dies, the people of the alley inevitably fall back into the greed and power lust that leads them back into gang rule.
In this portrayal of the cyclical nature of the alley, Mahfouz makes a bold statement about a people that praises their heroes through songs and poetry, yet who never actually retain the lessons taught by those heroes.
An engrossing novel, Children of the Alley will entrance you with its prose-like qualities, which fashion a history as beautiful and intricate as the designs on a Persian carpet. With such a talent for evocative description, it is easy to see why Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.
Rating: 3
Summary: (3.5) A cautionary tale
Comment: Through a succession of generations and characters Mafouz makes a strong case for humanity's penchant for forgetting the lessons learned by historical perspective.
In the beginning, an eldest son is cast from his father's house, and loses his inheritance, which goes to a son by a different mother. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, this next inheriting son is tempted, and also falls prey to his human failings. The two cast-out sons establish residence in the alley outside the opulent security of their father's house. They spend their lives waiting to be forgiven, for their "ancestor" (father) to call them and their families back into the fold. In this way, the sons and the son's sons live the life of the alley, a microcosm of the misery of mankind, where the strong feed on the weak and violence dominates.
The story becomes an allegory for all of mankind seeking salvation and forgiveness, a return to the source from which we came. Some of the descendants claim to have visions of their "ancestor" (God), changing their lives completely, spreading a doctrine of love and renewal; as well, each generation in the alley produces a "prophet". Life becomes so desperate that the people willingly change their ways and temporary peace settles on the alley. In each case, over time, all is forgotten and the people fall into despair again. And so the cycle repeats. The reader is left to look inward at his own role, his own small history, whether to choose the light or the darkness.
Rating: 5
Summary: Mahfouz risked his life for this book and almost lost it
Comment: In 1993 Mahfouz was stabbed by a fundementalist for writing this book. If you read it you will see that it sets everyone under one spiritual saga. By everyone I mean all of the middle-eastren religons. Nonetheless it can be read as a novel about a family's journey throughout time starting with one family and stemming out into many conflicting families. It really makes you think of Adam as everyone's base root, the grandfather that humanity shares, weither you believe in that or not is not the point, because wherever we came from we all came from the same place. But Mahfouz goes deeper into why families split up, where does one family breake off into many families, and why. Don't try to take this into mind though, and don't go into it looking for arguments, if you find yourself doing that just put it down untill you've fallen in love with one from the enemy, whoever you are. This was a story not so much about love, but in its service.
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Title: The Cairo Trilogy : Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street by Edward W. Said, Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0375413316 Publisher: Unknown Publisher - Being Researched Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0385264585 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0385423357 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 17 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Journey of Ibn Fattouma by Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 0385423349 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Mirrors by Najib Mahfuz, Seif Wanli, Roger Allen, Naguib Mahfouz ISBN: 9774245601 Publisher: Amer Univ in Cairo Pr Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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