“What is madness?” asks the narrator of Ahmed Alaidy’s jittery, funny, and angry new novel, Being Abbas el Abd. Assuring readers that they are about to find out, the narrator takes us on his subsequent itinerary through the insanity of present-day Cairo—in and out of minibuses, malls, and crash pads. Sharing the intensity of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and the hip sensibility of Douglas Coupland’s Generation X, Ahmed Alaidy’s work pushes the limits of written Arabic, developing private meanings and personal rhythms that mirror the weft and warp of the narrator’s mind and revel in every linguistic register from ironic high Classical Arabic to the ingenious abuse of the streets via the hip colloquial language of Egypt’s “what-have-I-got-to-lose” generation. A literary sensation in its original Arabic edition, Being Abbas el Abd heralds the arrival of a major new voice in Arabic literature.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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“This groundbreaking novel exposes the mental landscape of what Alaidy calls the ‘autistic generation,’ a generation cynical about politics and upset by the growing gap between the rich elite, an impoverished middle class and the poor struggling to survive.”—Arab News
'A cult novel based in Cairo's shopping malls described as a 'Chuck Palahniuk-inspired rollercoaster ride through the insanity of Cairo.' Ahmed Alaidy, a 36-year-old former scriptwriter is a great chronicler of the reality of day-to-day life in Egypt.' (Voyager 201009) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
'A cult novel based in Cairo's shopping malls described as a 'Chuck Palahniuk-inspired rollercoaster ride through the insanity of Cairo.' Ahmed Alaidy, a 36-year-old former scriptwriter is a great chronicler of the reality of day-to-day life in Egypt.' (Voyager 201009) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
Ahmed Alaidy was born in 1974, studied marketing at Cairo University, and has worked as a scriptwriter on quiz shows and for the cinema, and as a book designer. He has written satirical stories for young people and currently writes a political comic strip for an Egyptian weekly. Alaidy has participated in international writers programs at The University of Iowa and Hong Kong Baptist University.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unlike anything else, except for maybe some things
30 Oct 2006
By J. R. Westcott
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I highly recommend this new novel out of Cairo. Written by an Iowa Writers Center graduate and so dedicated to his mentor there Chuck Palahniuk, it is a cubist portrait of a mind losing its way--set in the cafe culture of modern Egypt. Dizzying and long-lasting.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Psychotic in Cairo
20 Jan 2013
By Geoffrey Fox
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
In a Cairo circa 2003, inhabited entirely by 20-somethings, the narrator -- who may or may not be named Abdullah -- gets into terrible jams and awkward situations thanks to a slovenly roommate named Abbas el Abd, who is either a demonic trickster or a psychotic projection of the narrator himself. Who knows? He certainly doesn't. But in his confusions and anger you get a taste of the consumer anxieties, frustrations -- sexual and also of national pride -- and daily humiliations by those in authority that were a large part of what the masses in Tahrir Square in January of this year (2011) were protesting against, especially the younger ones, and that is a good reason to read this short, chaotic novel. Here's a sample of some of the daily frustrations that might drive a young Cairene nuts:
«Abbas says the utilities shaft of the apartment block is the only place where a man can read the papers in the morning when his wife grudgingly shuts up so as to able to listen to the neighbors quarreling. Episode 7009 of the sitcom "Life," starring my neighbor and his esteemed wife.
...
Click. The Nine O'Clock News. A quick shot: in the market place in Jerusalem an Israeli conscript kicks an old woman in the stomach, and Jaffa oranges fall from her hands and are squashed beneath the huge boots.»
Translator Humphrey Davies has done a complex, acrobatic job rendering Alaidy's mix of classical and colloquial Arabic and newly-minted expressions grabbed from English (al-boyyi frind, for example). His note at the end of the book is well worth reading to put this little book in context.
«Abbas says the utilities shaft of the apartment block is the only place where a man can read the papers in the morning when his wife grudgingly shuts up so as to able to listen to the neighbors quarreling. Episode 7009 of the sitcom "Life," starring my neighbor and his esteemed wife.
...
Click. The Nine O'Clock News. A quick shot: in the market place in Jerusalem an Israeli conscript kicks an old woman in the stomach, and Jaffa oranges fall from her hands and are squashed beneath the huge boots.»
Translator Humphrey Davies has done a complex, acrobatic job rendering Alaidy's mix of classical and colloquial Arabic and newly-minted expressions grabbed from English (al-boyyi frind, for example). His note at the end of the book is well worth reading to put this little book in context.
›
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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