Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

As the exciting events in Egypt unfolded over the past three weeks, I re-read the novel Palace Walk, the first volume of Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, a multi-generational saga of the middle-class Sawad family from World War I to World War II.  It is a rich portrayal of culture and politics during the period when Egyptian revolutionaries were trying to rid their country of British occupation.  I first read it 10 or 15 years ago and kept on my bookshelves knowing that someday I would want to return to it.  January-February of 2011 was the right time.

The first part of the novel focuses on family life and dynamics.  The family patriarch, al-Sayyid Ahmad, wields absolute authority in a traditional Muslim household comprised of his wife, Amina, five children, and servant.  His family knows him only as the stern father, but at work in his store, and at play with his cronies and lovers, he is gregarious and charming.  Amina, wed at 13, is cloistered, as are her two marriageable daughters.  While tirelessly working to keep the entire household running smoothly, she is completely subservient to her husband and has not left her house for 25 years.  The three sons, one out of school and employed, one in college, and one still in elementary school, have much more freedom than the two daughters.  But none of the children can make decisions about marriage or career independently; their destinies are in their father's hands. Family members cope with this reality but also devise strategies to circumvent it, sometimes with explosive results.  Al-Sayyid Ahmad does not want to accept it, but times are changing and his family cannot help but be influenced.  We see events and personalities through the eyes of each of the characters, and can sympathize with them all, even the irascible father.

The latter part of the book focuses on the second son, Fahmy, 19, who becomes deeply involved in politics as the movement for independence grows, culminating in the Revolution of 1919.  As I read about scenes of student demonstrators in the streets of Cairo, I was struck by the similarity to what we were witnessing on television.  When I went looking for non-fiction accounts of that period, I found an article on Al-Jazeera's website by an Egyptian woman historian commenting on the parallels between 1919 and 2011.

A tragic yet open-ended conclusion leaves one asking what will happen to this family and wanting to pursue the story in the next two books, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street (the titles, by the way, are all names of streets in Cairo).  All volumes are still in print and available through bookstores or libraries.