translated by Humphrey Davies]. ISBN-10: 0-06-087813-4 (pbk.)
Romanen handler ikke om bygningen, men om de mennesker, der bor i den. Der er ikke en egentlig sammenbindende handling. Vi får i stedet en beskrivelse, der har samme umiddelbare, tilfældige, (u)sammenhængende karakter, som hvis du satte dig i bygningens underetage og lod folk komme til dig. Det er, som om du snakker med disse mennesker, du får hele tiden nye bidder af viden om dem, oplever nye sider. Det, at de nye bidder kommer ind stykkevis og delt - som i virkelig kontakt - er formentlig et væsentligt bidrag til den ægthed, som bogen giver indtryk af. Hvis det, som jeg tror, er et bevidst fortælleteknisk kneb, er Aswany meget dygtig - og vi bør længes efter flere bøger fra ham
Meget fascinerende. Jeg føler som New York Review of Books citeres for på forsiden, at jeg har fået ikke et, men mange interessante glimt af det moderne Ægyptens samfund og kultur. Da Ægypten er et arabisk land og meget af kulturen derfor er fælles med de andre arabiske lande, og da disse lande spiller en så stor rolle for, hvad der sker i Verden, er bogen uomgængelig læsning for alle. Og så er den endda særdeles underholdende.
Den indeholder
en masse hyklerisk religion - det er nemmere at se og grine af i en anden kultur. Men den fandtes i min barndom ligeså komisk på Vestkysten. Og dobbeltmoralen spiller jo en ligeså stor politisk rolle i USA med Rapture-evangeliske og flat-earth-kristne
en rigtig arabisk hestehandel (om et værelse, p. 30-1), det kunne de også på heden.
hverdagslivet og dets udvikling, m.h.t. religiøsitet, dobbeltmoral, alkohol, penge, homosexualitet, især p. 32-5
korruptionen, f.eks p. 144-9
politiets funktion
et eksempel på globaliseringens velsignelser
et dobbeltmord
religiøs rådgivning i familieanliggender
og meget andet. Er du bevidst om forskellene i forbud i forskellige kulturer, er der i den mange sjove eksempler, der minder om de problemer, der opstod på en Englandsfærge, da nogen havde arrangeret et møde mellem vestjyske (kortspillende) indre missions folk og engelske (dansende) kristne missionærer.
Og så er der et eksempel på, at flerkoneri kan løse et moralsk problem. Den åbne og fordomsfrie drøftelse med sheikhen giver en lille revision til billedet af de strenge, moralske, forbydende muslimer; og en illustration af forskelle i forbud i forskellige kulturer. Den samme tolerance ses i Abduhs naboer holdning til ham. Med de begrænsninger du også finder på Vesterbro.
Zaki Bey er rigere og finere end Hagg Azzam og derfor ikke henvist til religionens rette vej. Det kommer der en flot røverhistorie ud af ! 61 - 68 + 79- 80 + 107-114 + 134 - 139 og således er det med alle historierne, de kommer igen og igen og igen med nye detaljer, nye udviklinger. Og Hagg Azzams rette vej ender også i, hvad vi vil betragte som uacceptabelt, umoralsk.
Det er ingen selvfølge, at skurkene er ægyptere.
Historien om Taha el Shazli's "character interview" til optagelse på politiskolen og ydmygelsen fordi han kun er søn af en dørvogter er både specifik ægyptisk - og almen. p. 57 - 61 + 68 + 78-9 også den historie udvikler sig videre med skabelsen af en terrorist og hans uddannelse, p. 93 - 100, 150-3. 189-94.
Then came the 1970s, and the downtown area started gradually to lose its importance, the heart of Cairo moving to where the new elite lived, in El Mohandiseen and Medinet Nasr. An inexorable wave of religiosity swept Egyptian society and it became no longer socially acceptable to drink alcohol. 33
Often the Englishman gets so excited that his face turns red while he berates the homosexual whose lust has been aroused, saying, "Listen. As long as you're at my place, behave yourself. If you fancy your friend that much, get up and go off with him, but don't you lay a hand on him in this bar!" The Englishman's sternness here does not stem from any concern for morality of course but from calculations of profit and loss, since plainclothes officers often visit the bar. 36-7
[T]he noble hadith that says, "If one of you speaks let him be brief, or let him stay silent" [Hadith'er er ordsprog, der har (næsten ?) lige så stor vægt i islam, som Koranen.
... believed that his uprightness and avoidance of anything that might make God angry was the main reason for all the success he had achieved - for he never drank alcohol. (As for the hashish that he smoked, many religious experts had assured him that it was merely "reprehensible" and neither created uncleanness nor was absolutely prohibited. In addition it neither took away the mental faculties nor drove man to commit indecencies or crimes as did alcohol; on the contrary, hashish calmed a man's nerves, brought him greater equipoise, and sharpened his mind.) 51
But the urges continued as the days passed and intensified until they became a heavy burden on his nerves and, even worse, were the cause af a number of tiffs with Hagga Salha, his wife, who was a few years younger than he but was caught unprepared by this sudden blossoming of youthfulness and then got upset because she was unable to satisfy him. More than once she rebuked him and told him that their children were grown men and that as two older spouses they ought to adorn themselves with an appropriate sedateness. 51-2
Nothing was left to Hagg Azzam but to take the matter to Sheikh el Samman, the celebrated man of religion and president of the Islamic Charitable Association, whom Azzam considers his spiritual leader and guide in all matters pertaining to this world and the next. 52
The sheikh listened attentively was silent for a while, then said with a vehemence that was not far from anger, "Glory be, Hagg! Why, my brother, make things difficult for yourself when God has made them easy for you? Why open the door for Satan, so that you can fall into error? You have to protect yourself, as God commanded. God has made marriage to more than one wife lawful for you so long as you behave with justice. Put your trust in God and make haste to do what is right before you fall into what is wrong!" 52
Marry and treat both your wives equally God loves you to make lawful use of what He has permitted." 52-3
Thus, the Hagg refused all candidates until he met Souad Gaber, a salesclerk in fhe Hannaux department store in Alexandria. She was divorced and had one son, and as soon as the Hagg saw her she beguiled his heart - a light-skinned woman, full-bodied, beautiful, who covered her hair. which was black and smooth and flowing, the tresses peeking out from beneath her headscarf. The eyes were black, wide, and bewitching, the lips plump and sensual, and she was clean, and her attention to the minutiae of her body was outstanding as is usually the case with the women of Alexandria. Her finger- and toenails were clipped and the tips were cleaned, though they were not painted (so that the varnish would not form an impediment to the water she used for her ritual ablutions). Her hands were soft, tender-skinned, and rubbed with cream. Even her heels were extremely clean, smooth, firm, and free of any cracking, and were suffused with a delicate redness as a result of being polished with pumice. 53-4
Souad left a delicate, fascinating Impression on the Hagg's heart. What pleased him specially was the meekness that poverty and a hard life had left her with. He considered that her history was in no way blameworthy: she had married a house painter, who had left her a son and then abandoned her and gone off to Iraq, where nothing more was heard from him; the court had granted her a divorce so that her situation should not lead to social problems. 54
"How can that be? Is there anyone who hates his own country?"
"I never got anything good from it to make me love it."
She averted her face as she said this sentence. Zaki responded excitedly, 'A person has to love his country because his country is his mother. Does anyone hate his mother?"
"That's all songs and movies. Zaki Bey, people are suffering."
"Being poor doesn't mean you can't be patriotic. Most of Egypt's nationalist leaders were poor."
"All that was in your day. Now people are really fed up."
"Which people?"
"Everyone. For example, all the girls who were with me at commercial school wanted to get out of the country any way they could."
"It's that bad?"
"Of course."
"If you can't find good in your own country, you won't find it anywhere else.
The words slipped out from Zaki Bey, but he felt that they were ungracious so he smiled to lessen their impact on Busayna, who had stood up and was saying bitterly "You don't understand because you're well-off. When you've stood for two hours at the bus stop or taken three different buses and had to go through hell every day just to get home, when your house has collapsed and the goverment has left you sitting with your children in a tent on the street, when the police officer has insulted you and beaten you just because you're on a minibus at night, when you've spent the whole day going around the shops looking for work and there isn't any, when you're a fine sturdy young man with an education and all you have in your pockets is a pound, or sometimes nothing at all, then you'll know why we hate Egypt." 138
El Fouli answered, looking at him hard, "It means it won't do for you to eat it all, Hagg. We want a quarter."
'A quarter of what.?"
"A quarter of the profits."
Who's 'we'?"
El Fouli laughed loudly and said, "What kind of a question is that. Hagg? You were born and bred here and you know the score." 148 fortsætter 227-31
Abduh told his neighbors that he worked as Hatim Rasheed's cook. but they didn't believe him because they knew about Hatim's homosexuality and because he would spend the night with him at least twice a week. Among themselves, they would joke about these "midnight feasts" that Abduh would prepare for his master, knowing the truth and accepting it. In general their behavior with any deviant person depended on how much they liked him. If they disliked him, they would rise up against him in defense of virtue, quarrel bitterly with him, and prevent their children from having anything to do with him. If, on the other hand, they liked him, as they did Abduh, they would forgive him and deal with him on the basis that he was misled. 154-5
If she would just burst out in his face and accuse him of being a sodomite, he would be freed of the burden and tell her everything and point out to her quite simply that he couldn't do without Hatim because he needed the money; so he said to her suddenly, "You know, Hidiya, Hatim Bey is a very kindhearted man ... Why don't you say something?"
"Because he isn't kindhearted or anything of the sort, It's just that you're honest and he depends on your work."
This was the argument she always used in front of the neighbors. and she spoke sharply because he had violated that pretense of ignorance that allowed her to avoid embarrassment. He repented a bit of his outburst and said to her calmingly "All the same, wife, he's to be thanked because he did us all these favors.
"There are no favors. Everyone does what's in his best interest. You understand and I understand. God forgive us for Hatim and for Hatim's job and for every day we've spent with him." p. 156
It was a different age. Cairo was like Europe. It was clean and smart and the people were well mannered and respectable and everyone knew his place exactly. I was different too. I had my station in life, my money all my friends were of a certain niveau, I had my special places where I would spend the evening - the Automobile Club, the Club Muhammad Ali, the Gezira Club. What times! Every night was filled with laughter and parties and drinking and singing. There were lots of foreigners in Cairo. Most of the people living downtown were foreigners, until Abd el Nasser threw them out in 1956." 162
Taha was silent and looked into the sheikh's face, for the mention of death had had its effect on him. Then he said, "I'm dead now. They killed me in detention. When they trespass on your honor laughing, when they give you a woman's name and make you answer with your new name and you have to because of the savagery of the torture. . . . They called me Fawziya. Every day they used to beat me and make me say, I'm a woman and my name is Fawziya.' You want me to forget all that and go on living.
He spoke bitterly and bit his lower lip with his teeth. The sheikh said, "Listen, Taha. This is my last word, to clear my conscience before Our Lord, Mighty and Glorious; getting involved in fighting this regime means certain death."
"I'm not afraid of death any longer. I've made up my mind to be a martyr. I hope with all my heart to die a martyr and enter Paradise."
There was silence between them and suddenly the sheikh got up from his place and went over to Taha and looked at him for a short while. Then he hugged him hard and smiled and said, "God bless you. my son. This is what real faith does to those who have it. Go home now and pack your bag for a journey. Tomorrow moming I'll come and go with you."
"Where to?"
The sheikh's smile broadened and he whispered, "Don't ask. Do as I say and you'll find everything out in due course." 190-1
The Station bears the name of the cement company that the Swiss built in the twenties and which was then nationalized after the Revolution and increased its production to become one of the biggest cement factories in the Arab World. Thereafter, like the other major companies, it had been subjected to the Open Door Policy and privatization, with foreign companies buying numerous shares. 191
Next to the bed stood a stout nurse with a snub nose. She bent over Souad and put her hand on her face, then smiled and said, "Praise God you're fine. God's been good to you. You hemorrhaged badly
"Liar!" shouted Souad in a strangled voice. The nurse leaped back. "You aborted me by force. I'll see you get hell!" 194
As a man will flick off with his fingers a few flecks of dust that have clung to the breast of his smart suit and continue on his way as though nothing had happened, so Hagg Azzam got rid of Souad Gaber and was able to erase his affection for her. It was the memory of her delectable, hot, supple body that kept coming back to him and he made a massive and painful effort to forget her, recalling deliberately her savage, hateful face during the final scene and imagining the problems and scandals that would have plagued him if he hadn't got rid of her. He consoled himself with the thought that his marriage to her, while providing him with wonderful times, hadn't cost him a great deal. He also thought that his experience with her might be replicable. Beautiful poor women were in good supply and wedlock was holy not something anyone could be reproached for. 196
The nurse looked at him with annoyance and told him the director wasn't there. Abduh almost got into a fight with him when the nurse told him that he had to wait his turn for the child to be seen. Hatim then went out to the nearest public telephone and called several numbers from the small notebook that he always kept in his pocket with the result that the hospital's deputy director came out to them and received them warmly, apologizing for the absence of the director. The deputy director was a fat man with a pale complexion whose face gave an impression of good-heartedness and straightforwardness. He examined the child carefully then said in an anxious voice, "Unfortunately the case is advanced and critical. The boy is dehydrated and feverish." 198
Laughing comments showered down from the brothers as they left the mosque. Taha bade them farewell and they departed. Left on his own, he began to feel terrified. He had imagined what he would do on the wedding night in numerous ways, then in the end he'd gone ahead and decided to let things proceed as God ordained, though the idea that he had no experience of women while his wife did have previous experience, perhaps making her hard to please, continued to make him anxious. As though reading his thoughts, Sheikh Bilal had taken him aside the day before the wedding and spoken to him of marriage and his wife's rights in the Law, stressing to him that there was nothing for a Muslim to feel shy about in marrying a woman who was not a virgin and that a Muslim woman's previous marriage ought not to be a weak point that her new husband could exploit against her. He said sarcastically, "The secularists accuse us of puritanism and rigidity, even while they suffer from innumerable neuroses. You'll find that if one of them marries a woman who was previously married, the thought of her first husband will haunt him and he may treat her badly, as though punishing her for her legitimate marriage. Islam has no such complexes." 220
Orla Jordal, 2007
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