Playing Cards in Cairo
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Review
For AL JAZEERA: ** 'Western policymakers have much to learn from this stylish, highly intelligent book' DAILY TELEGRAPH ** 'Pacey, nicely written and well contexualised' INDEPENDENT ** 'A must-read for anyone interested in understanding the Arab world now - and what it might become' SCOTSMAN
Daily Mail
'An intriguing read and, as an introduction to Egyptian life, it's fascinating'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It was always going to be difficult and controversial for an Englishman to write a book about Egyptian women, but Hugh Miles manages it brilliantly. Placing himself and his relationship with one of them at the heart of his story, he never lets his readers forget the perspective from which the world he describes is being viewed.
Miles lets us in through the back door to eavesdrop on young middle-class Egyptian women talking about their lives. And their lives aren't easy: they have to cope with authoritarian husbands and brothers; one of them is addicted to prescription drugs; another is suffering from the after-effects of botched plastic surgery.
It's not all hardship, however. We also learn about their hopes, dreams, secret lovers and, above all, their friendships with each other which sustain them.
A consummate journalist, Miles lets the people he's writing about, people whose voices are rarely heard, speak for themselves.
This is an important and groundbreaking book.
Miles lets us in through the back door to eavesdrop on young middle-class Egyptian women talking about their lives. And their lives aren't easy: they have to cope with authoritarian husbands and brothers; one of them is addicted to prescription drugs; another is suffering from the after-effects of botched plastic surgery.
It's not all hardship, however. We also learn about their hopes, dreams, secret lovers and, above all, their friendships with each other which sustain them.
A consummate journalist, Miles lets the people he's writing about, people whose voices are rarely heard, speak for themselves.
This is an important and groundbreaking book.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has the potential to appeal to a lot of different people. From the outside it looks like a romance that belongs in the travel section or perhaps the cards and games shelf of your local bookshop.
But the card games of the title (which enabled Hugh Miles to meet and fall in love with an Egyptian girl) are just a device, the narrative key to a treasure trove of stories about the lives and loves of women in Muslim society. The result is a compassionate book, very funny at times and truly shocking at others, which provides an outstanding documentary insight into a topic that is a mystery to most of us in the west, and it would seem, a taboo subject for many Muslim men.
The characters and relationships illustrate the difficulties that Egyptian women face (such as trying to find a suitable boy while under the vigilant discipline of one's own family) and - brilliantly and wonderfully - how they rise above those problems. The women's ingenuity and spirit as they subtly resist and defy their own fathers and brothers is inspiring and moving.
Miles had a privileged insider's view because the girl he fell in love with was unusually free of family ties and thus more able than most to associate with a foreign man. The women whose stories he tells are literate, metropolitan and relatively liberal, and I am sure that there are millions of women who have an even tougher time in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.
This is a stunning, informative, insider's look at real lives in a society that I knew almost nothing about. Miles has unlocked the secrets and I will never feel the same again when I see a woman in a headscarf.
But the card games of the title (which enabled Hugh Miles to meet and fall in love with an Egyptian girl) are just a device, the narrative key to a treasure trove of stories about the lives and loves of women in Muslim society. The result is a compassionate book, very funny at times and truly shocking at others, which provides an outstanding documentary insight into a topic that is a mystery to most of us in the west, and it would seem, a taboo subject for many Muslim men.
The characters and relationships illustrate the difficulties that Egyptian women face (such as trying to find a suitable boy while under the vigilant discipline of one's own family) and - brilliantly and wonderfully - how they rise above those problems. The women's ingenuity and spirit as they subtly resist and defy their own fathers and brothers is inspiring and moving.
Miles had a privileged insider's view because the girl he fell in love with was unusually free of family ties and thus more able than most to associate with a foreign man. The women whose stories he tells are literate, metropolitan and relatively liberal, and I am sure that there are millions of women who have an even tougher time in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.
This is a stunning, informative, insider's look at real lives in a society that I knew almost nothing about. Miles has unlocked the secrets and I will never feel the same again when I see a woman in a headscarf.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I wasn't sure if I should buy this book after having seen it at the bookstore more than 3 months ago, but decided it might be an interesting read for last week's Eid El Fitr vacation and it was.
It's an easy read and a real page-turner taking me nearly three days to finish. I quite enjoyed sitting around the cards' table with the gang and listening in to what was going on in the girls' heads.
It is beautifully written and gives genuine insider's views on the lives of Egyptians today.
It's an easy read and a real page-turner taking me nearly three days to finish. I quite enjoyed sitting around the cards' table with the gang and listening in to what was going on in the girls' heads.
It is beautifully written and gives genuine insider's views on the lives of Egyptians today.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not your typical insight into Islamic culture.
Dont let the title fool you, this is not a book about cards, rather it is a snapshot of some of the lives lived by Eyptians today, especially that of Egyptian women, told to Hugh... Read more
Published 9 months ago by cuentacuentos
Even modern women have a hard time in Egypt
Hugh Miles is a British freelance journalist whose work took him to Cairo in 2004. There he met a young Egyptian woman, here called Roda. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ralph Blumenau
Excellent
This book is very well written, and by an excellent storyteller. Very enjoyable, and with a sympathetic understanding of Cairo and the people. Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. Ward
Interesting, though slightly uninformed, with a hint of imperialism
Having lived in Cairo for some time, I have to say that some of Hugh Miles' information about Cairo and Islam is... Just. Not. True. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Fairuza Foch
Evocation of Cairo
This book is so evocative of the Cairo I remember and love.
It is written in a manner which brings memories alive and apart from the pleasure this must bringto readers who... Read more
It is written in a manner which brings memories alive and apart from the pleasure this must bringto readers who... Read more
Published on 15 Dec 2009 by S. M. B. Stark
Well written
This is well written as the writer has clearly immersed himself in the Egyptian culture, interweaving a story of Egyptian recent history and culture with the Egyptian people of... Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2008 by Stephen Chambers
Fresh.
An engaging read, and rather unique mix of romance and hard nosed social comment. Miles, a sympathetic listener and voracious fact finder, has created an original and entertaining... Read more
Published on 5 May 2008 by Chazegee
Uncovering New Challenges in Egyptian Society
This book definitely deserves a 5! It addresses concerns which Egyptians, especially female Cairenes are unable to overtly discuss. Read more
Published on 13 April 2008 by Selim, D.
Egyption love stories
this is a standard work of fiction by some westerner gets besotted with some Egyption woman,converts to islam so he can marry his true love,he has not a clue what he's on... Read more
Published on 1 April 2008 by Mr. S. Yousaf
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