SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH BOOKS

Naguib Mahfouz–CAIRO MODERN

Jan 19th, 2011 by mary

Note: Naguib Mahfouz was WINNER of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.

“Forget your qualifications. Don’t waste money on applying for a job. The question boils down to one thing: Do you have someone who will intercede for you? Are you related to someone in a position of power? Can you become engaged to the daughter of someone in the government?”

Set in the 1940s, during the reign of King Farouk, Cairo Modern is, by turns, ironic, satirical, farcical, and, ultimately, cynical, as the author creates a morality tale which takes place in a country in which life’s most basic guiding principles are still undetermined. World War II has kept the British in Egypt as a foreign power, a weak Egyptian monarchy is under siege by reformers, and the army is growing. The plight of the poor is an urgent national problem. As the novel opens, four Cairo college students, all due to graduate that year, are arguing moral principles, one planning to live his life according to “the principles that God Almighty has decreed,” while others argue in favor of science as the new religion, materialism, social liberation, and even love as guiding principles. None of the students have any respect for their government, which they see as “rich folks and major families.” As one points out, “A representative who spends hundreds of pounds to get elected cannot represent impoverished people.”

Among the students, Mahgub Abd al-Da’im is the poorest, living on a pittance, which is all his father and mother can provide him. His father’s sudden stroke, however, reduces Mahgub’s three pounds a month to only one pound, and he must literally starve himself in order to finish the school year, becoming more and emaciated as time passes. His father, unable to work, has only enough money to survive for one month after Mahgub graduates on May, so finding a job is truly a matter of the whole family’s survival for Mahgub. When Mahgub contacts a former neighbor, Salim Al-Ikhshidi, for help, Al-Ikhshidi lays out the facts of life regarding government jobs like his own—certain people will help him in exchange for a flat fee or a portion of his salary over several years—unless he can find a wife among the daughters of ministers, an impossibility considering Mahgub’s poverty.

Before long, however, Al-Ikhshidi, in consultation with higher-ups, has devised a plan for Mahgub, who is in no position to be selective. If Mahgub will agree to marry the lover of a high-ranked government official and become part of a ménage a trois, all his expenses will be paid and a job will be guaranteed in the ministry where Al-Ikhshidi himself works.

The marriage of Mahgub and Ihsan is filled with the expected complications as Mahgub tries to hide his poverty-stricken past and his betrayal of a college friend, at the same time that he is rising in the government, associating with wealthy and influential friends, and becoming arrogant, all sources of great humor and satire by Mahfouz. Elegant society parties attended by people who “surpassed [Mahgub] in his own cynical principles” reveal Mahfouz’s opinion of this level of society.

The final scenes are worthy of the grandest of farces, and it is easy to imagine this as a period film, with the complications turning Mahgub’s life into a disaster. The Egyptian setting, while important, ultimately becomes less important here than the universal themes and attitudes which the author is satirizing—the naivete of college students, the lure of wealth, the arrogance of power, the pretentions of the newly affluent, the willingness to sacrifice principle for expediency, and, ultimately, the ability of “the clique of most powerful criminals to destroy the weaker ones.” As Mahgub’s friends gather to discuss the latest governmental scandal at the end of the novel, they hark back to their arguments at the novel’s opening, wondering about the role of religion, the definition of evil, the mores of their society, and all the interactions among these. Life is busy for these young men, however, and tomorrow is another day.

ALSO: THE DAY THE LEADER WAS KILLED, KARNAK CAFE, THE MIRAGE,

Notes: Also reviewed here are MANY other novels by Mahfouz. See Authors tab at the top of the Home page for links.

The author’s photo appears on http://news.softpedia.com

Cairo University is depicted on http://en.wikipedia.org

Ascending the throne in 1936, King Farouk was Egypt’s last king. His reign lasted until 1952. http://en.wikipedia.org

Posted in 9b-2010 Reviews, Egypt, Humor, Satire, Absurdity, Literary, Social and Political Issues | No Comments »

Romano Bilenchi–THE CHILL

Jan 19th, 2011 by mary

Note: Romano Bilenchi (1909 – 1989), author of over ten novels, was winner of Italy’s prestigious Viareggio Prize in 1972. This book has just this month been made available in English for the first time.

“A subtle chill unexpectedly came over me, whenever my imagination placed before me images of the people with whom my existence was entwined: sometimes I became uneasy even at the thought of my classmates, the boys I saw every day. I feared the slightest change…”

The last novella written by acclaimed Italian author Romano Bilenchi before his death in 1989, The Chill, written in 1982, is a coming-of-age story so universal that it could just as easily have been written in 1902 or 2002. Set in the mid-1920s, in the hill towns between Siena and Florence, the novella recreates the story of an unnamed narrator dealing with the pangs of adolescence so skillfully that the reader can easily associate it with the author’s own childhood—and though the setting is dramatically different from that of J. D. Sallinger’s Catcher in the Rye, or L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between, or any of the other coming-of-age novels one might recall, the issues are similar in many respects.

The emphasis throughout is of an adolescent’s awareness of the death of family members and the loss that represents, the changes which accompany death, an individual’s relationship with the past and history, the importance of memory, and the extent to which other people’s perception of reality can color forever the reality itself for the participants in those same events. Using fewer words than most such novels, Bilenchi’s The Chill changes the emphasis of most coming-of-age novels from the inner lives of those novels’ speakers to the external worlds in which they live—replete with malice, ignorance, and even vengeance, which affect every aspect of the lives of the teenagers as they are growing up. Whether one is “good” or “bad,” in the universal sense, becomes more an issue of whether one has been good or bad as perceived by local consensus, and in this respect the novella is more socially conscious than the typical coming-of-age novel, which is usually focused on the main character’s own responses to external issues.

The main character here, unnamed, is an innocent sixteen-year-old when he accompanies his math professor in high school, and his all-boys’ class, on a once-a-week hike into the nearby Tuscan hills between Siena and Florence. His grandfather has been ill recently, and has been showing signs of senility, compulsively imagining his family’s participation as ancient Longobard (Lombard) warriors in the area’s history. While the grandfather is trying to assert some long-time association with history to guarantee his own memory, however, the speaker is just trying to get by as a teenager who loves his grandfather but must deal with the real, existing, world and the interrelationships which govern it. On the speaker’s return from his hike, he discovers that his beloved grandfather has passed away, a traumatic experience which dramatically affects his life.

The speaker, who experiences a “chill” at the changes that have occurred in his life, soon discovers even more dramatically that friendships are fickle, and that no amount of “preparation” can substitute for life as it is actually lived. Friendships are temporary, no matter now seriously and “sacrosanct” the speaker himself may regard them. Harassment, even by “friends,” occurs with regularity toward those who are seen as “different,” and the mob mentality rules. Often lonely and isolated, the speaker, who is also dealing with his growing sexuality and the frustrations that involves, is not sure how to deal with his need to be accepted and the conflicts he feels about his role in a wider world. His family does not help him to deal with these problems.

With its focus on family history, death, friendship, love, betrayal, and revenge, this novella deals with the most important of life’s issues, and while it does so within the context of the speaker’s own life, it is so universal and so significant in its conclusions that it is as relevant today as it was when it was written. Ultimately, the speaker’s discovery that “it wasn’t possible to live among other people if all of a sudden they could attack one another with such ferocity” leaves open the issue of what a teenager is to do to survive these attacks, and rings with the recognition of truth. A coming-of-age classic.

Notes: The author’s photo appears on http://www.e-toscana.com

REI has hiking tours from Florence to Siena, similar to those of the main character here: http://www.rei.com

The photo of morning mist over hills near Siena shows how little has changed between the present, when this photo was taken, and the 1920s when the main character was seeing the same sights. http://citypictures.org

Posted in 9b-2010 Reviews, Classic Novel, Coming-of-age, Italy, Literary | No Comments »

Kenzaburo Oe–NIP THE BUDS, SHOOT THE KIDS

Jan 19th, 2011 by mary

Note: Kenzaburo Oe was WINNER of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994.

“Listen, someone like you should be throttled while they’re still a kid. We squash vermin while it’s small. We’re peasants: we nip the bad buds early.”

Written in 1958, when the author was only twenty-three, this debut novel is stunning for its depiction of two societies–the society of peasant villagers who live in a remote and nearly inaccessible mountain village, and a society created by young delinquents when they are abandoned and blockaded inside this small village. It is also reflects the author’s vision of the broader society of Japan in the aftermath of World War II. Author Kenzaburo Oe himself grew up in a remote and nearly inaccessible village in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. He was ten years old when the war ended and the Emperor, the “living god,” announced the surrender of the country. In the years leading up to the publication of this novel, Japan and the Occupation forces came to agreements and influenced each other, and Oe believes that this led to a sense of emptiness and ambiguity in society–the old values and ways of life were gone, while the increasingly influential western values were not necessarily compatible with Japanese history.

Many western readers of this novel will be shocked to discover how “un-Japanese” in style this novel is. Oe, a student of Sartre and Heidegger in college, embraces those influences in his writing, instead of the delicacy, subtlety, and minimalist simplicity one usually associates with the Japanese arts. The novel is characterized by dense imagery, a strong narrative line and powerful emotions, violence presented as an understandable response to injustice, and an indictment of the communal mindset which can lead to expedient decision-making at the expense of the individual and his liberty. The Lord of the Flies atmosphere which evolves here is a strong statement of Oe’s feelings about his society–one he feels lacks a clear appreciation of the value of the individual.

Narrated by an unnamed delinquent who is one of fifteen boys being evacuated from their reformatory to a remote mountain during the war, the novel shows the inhumanity with which these boys are treated by the peasants for whom they are expected to work clearing the fields. The boys, malnourished and exhausted, arrive in time to bury a huge pile of animal carcasses, and they soon discover that these animals have died from a plague–the villagers themselves did not want to touch them. When one of the boys dies, followed soon after by a woman in the village, the villagers take off to avoid infection, barricading the way out so that the boys cannot escape. They must then set up their own society if they are to survive. Since the peasants had treated them cruelly, they find that being on their own is a dream come true. For the first time, some of them no longer feel like outsiders.

Away from normal society, the boys are free to express their own emotions, and the narrator and others quickly show their inner humanity. The narrator’s much younger brother, an innocent, depends upon the narrator, who is protective and warm towards him, with several people protecting also the young daughter of the woman who died from plague, a girl who was abandoned when the villagers evacuated and left all the “undesirables” behind. As the boys help each other, the author creates a real sense of pathos about their sad predicaments. Passages of great beauty–especially the morning in which they discover snow–contrast with the misery of their attempts at survival. Then everything changes.

Oe’s novel is an intense and passionate story about the mindless behavior of the majority against “outsiders.” His use of delinquents, by no means perfect or innocent, as the “heroes” of the novel sets the actions of the villagers into sharp relief. The ending is a further indictment of the use of power to control outcomes. Anyone who has enjoyed Lord of the Flies owes it to him-/herself to read this novel, which is as powerful today as it was when it was written. It is far more complex in its characterizations and themes and far less artificial and allegorical than Lord of the Flies. The latter, written in 1954, sold only a few copies upon publication and was not reprinted until the early 1960s, at which point it became enormously popular. This 1958 novel appears to have sprung independently from completely different inspirations. It is ironic that both William Golding and Kenzaburo Oe have won Nobel Prizes for Literature for their literary efforts, Golding in 1983 and Oe in 1994.

Notes: The author’s photo appears on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org

It is easy to imagine the boys using this rope bridge to get to the remote mountain top on Shikoku Island where they set up their community. http://www.toursbycharlie.com

Posted in 9b-2010 Reviews, Classic Novel, Coming-of-age, Japan, Literary, Social and Political Issues | No Comments »

Roddy Doyle–A STAR CALLED HENRY

Jan 19th, 2011 by mary

“I shot and killed all that I had been denied, all the commerce and snobbery that had been mocking me and other hundreds of thousands behind glass and locks, all the injustice, unfairness and shoes–while the lads took chunks out of the military.”

Henry Smart, born at the turn of the century, leads such a miserable childhood that he is on the streets by the age of five and solely responsible for his younger brother Victor by the age of nine. Always cold, hungry, and lacking a warm place to sleep, Henry and Victor are at the mercy of the elements, so concentrated on staying alive from moment to moment that they have no time to think toward the future. By the age of fourteen, Henry has met up with other poor who have some of the same resentments he has toward those who have dominated the land and commerce for so long. In 1916, the Irish Republican Brotherhood takes over the General Post Office on Easter Monday, declares the establishment of a new government, and raises its flag, and Henry is there–not out of a sense of patriotism so much as a sense that he is at home–and is fed–when he is among these people. When the shooting starts, Henry’s first bullets are aimed not at the British or at the police, but at the store window across the street, which he sees mocking him with its shiny new boots, something he has never had.

Depicting Henry’s life from his wretched early childhood through the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1921), author Roddy Doyle uses his formidable descriptive talents to show the horrors of poverty in Dublin and the resourcefulness of characters like Henry who manage to postpone starvation day by day, in the process showing also why the masses of desperate poor were so willing to risk their lives by joining the rebellion. The vibrant narrative of the Easter Rising itself and of the action inside the General Post Office provides some of the novel’s most fully drawn scenes and some of its best dialogue. In the aftermath of the Rising, with the leaders of the movement dead, various rebellious factions with different philosophies vie for control and compete for power, leading Henry to note, ultimately, that a successful movement is run “like a business,” not necesssarily a positive observation.

Including characters like Padraic Pearse and James Connelly, with whom Henry comes into contact at the GPO, and Michael Collins, for whom Henry later works as an assassin, Doyle recreates Irish history. Though the novel’s scope is wide and the events are among Ireland’s most significant, however, the focus remains clearly on Henry, a handsome character of considerable charm who never had the opportunity to be a child. He evokes empathy, even as he is performing terrible acts, and his discovery of love with “Miss O’Shea” is the one aspect of his life which allows him to be “normal,” though she eventually becomes even more radical than he. (Her lack of a first name in the novel may be meant to evoke memories of “Kitty O’Shea,” the controversial wife of Charles Stewart Parnell, an earlier nationalist leader, thereby connecting the twentieth century rebellion with earlier nationalist movements of the nineteenth century.) Henry, however, despite his contributions to the success of Michael Collins and his cohorts, remains an outsider, not a leader, never allowed into the inner circle of the movement.

Written in 1999, the first of a projected trilogy entitled “The Last Roundup,” A Star Called Henry marks a departure for Doyle, becoming his only novel to date which deals with a monumental historical setting and includes some of the real-life characters who shaped it. The decision to use a well-known historical setting can be both a blessing and a curse. The scenes in the General Post Office here are blessings–fast-paced and vibrantly written, some of the best of the novel–but they are so exciting that the aftermath (and much of the novel) feels like a bit of a let-down by comparison. And though Henry is a well-developed character, he is very young–and limited by his upbringing. He has learned in his desperate life to act according to what is expedient, and the reader does not observe the inner conflicts which make great characters come alive. It is not until the end of the novel that Henry begins to ask questions.

A Star Called Henry is a significant novel, however, one which will be regarded as one of Doyle’s most important. Though it may never be as loved as much as some of his other novels, which often include humor to set the misery into sharp relief, Doyle has treated his serious subject with respect and honesty, taking a close look at the people involved with the independence movement–both the heroes and the unknowns–and making them human.

Notes: Also reviewed here: Doyle’s THE DEAD REPUBLIC , THE GUTS, SMILE, LOVE, LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN

The author’s photo appears on http://www.culturenorthernireland.org

The photo of the Easter Rising shows police trying to take back the General Post Office after the Irish Republican Brotherhood—and Henry Smart–had taken it over. http://www.irishhistorian.com

The photo of the young Michael Collins in the uniform of the IRB appears on http://sarasmichaelcollinssite.com

A STAR CALLED HENRY
REVIEW. Coming-of-age, Historical, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Literary, Irish War of Independence
Written by: Roddy Doyle
Published by: Penguin Books; Reissue edition (October 5, 2004)
Edition: Reissue edition
ISBN: 978-0143034612
Available in: Ebook Paperback Hardcover

Posted in 9b-2010 Reviews, Coming-of-age, Historical, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Literary | No Comments »

Juan de Recacoechea–ANDEAN EXPRESS

Jan 19th, 2011 by mary

“In the life of a traveler, the impossible is always possible; everything depends on whether you have enough bills on hand or how badly you want to work out your problems.”

The twenty-four hour train ride from La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, Chile, through the Andes at an altitude of up to 16,000 feet, from which the railway descends to the sea, provides the “closed room” setting for a murder which takes place in 1952, somewhat akin to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (1934). The key difference, however, is that the passengers on the Andean Express are, for the most part, local people traveling for a variety of reasons, and not wealthy Europeans traveling for pleasure. Their issues and resentments are local, based on their long histories with the victim, a man so loathsome that few can find anything positive to say about him. “Killing Alderete would not be murder; it would be a settling of accounts,” one remarks.

Author Juan de Recacoechea, the most popular author in Bolivia, and one of only a handful of Bolivian authors to have had his novels translated into English, creates a broad picture of Bolivian society through his depiction of the passengers on the train–their attitudes, their goals, their expectations, and the lengths to which they might go to ensure that they will be successful in reaching their goals. In a novel notable for the clarity of the prose and the simplicity of the narrative structure, the author tells a fast-paced story. The murder is not a mystery to be solved so much as it is a question of whether the killer will be able to escape prosecution for killing a man everyone believes deserves to have been killed. The biggest mysteries here are what took people so long to act against him and how much the passengers may be willing to close their eyes to let the murderer escape prosecution.

Among the passengers are Ricardo Beintigoitia, a recent high school graduate who is taking the trip to celebrate the end of the school. He shares a cabin with Rev. Daniel Moreno, a Franciscan priest, who may not be who he seems to be. Ricardo is attracted to Gulietta Carletti, also aged eighteen, who has just been married to Don Nazario Alderete, a much older man she despises and who she and her mother believe is responsible for the death of her father. Felipe Trellez, Ricardo’s uncle, a former Bolivian ambassador to France, is on the train. Edmundo Rocha, Alderete’s half-brother, injured and crippled in an accident, hates Alderete, who pensioned him off with barely enough money to cover the burial of his mother when he was injured. Lalo Ruiz, a poker player, from whom Alderete stole property, is traveling, along with Petko Danilov, a Russian loan shark, and “the Marquis,” a man who despises Alderete for stealing his wife. The Marquis is accompanied by Anita, La Paz’s most famous madam, who also hates Alderete. With no dearth of motives, one wonders only why it took so long to eliminate Alderete.

The author keeps the narrative moving, creating enough information about the various characters that the reader will appreciate the overlapping of stories and motives. None of the characters are fully developed, but they are developed enough to satisfy the needs of the story and keep the reader intrigued. The dialogue, well translated, makes the circumstances feel natural, however bizarre they may seem, with a classic line included at a key moment: “I can’t believe it. This could be a Billy Wilder comedy.”

Readers new to de Recacoechea will appreciate his clear vision of his story’s direction and the lack of complication in either style or structure to get in the way of the quick pace and the action. He creates characters who reveal much about life in Bolivia without being easy stereotypes, and he presents a conclusion which raises as many questions as it solves. The train ride from La Paz to Arica is fascinating (see notes below for a video of this ride) as it moves through various climate zones and unique geographical formations, and train buffs will enjoy its descriptions as much as lovers of international mysteries will enjoy the assortment of unusual characters. Though this novel is not as complex in character and theme as America Visa, it is a wonderful addition of Juan de Recacoechea’s work in English, and great fun to read.

Notes: Also reviewed here: de Recacoechea’s AMERICAN VISA

The author’s photo appears on http://www.calabashfestival.org

The Ferrocarril Antofagasta Bolivia may be seen here: http://www.markusworldwide.ch

Want to take the same train ride? This video takes a passenger train on the same trip, on the same track, from Arica to La Paz. The scenery is most unusual.