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The Yacoubian Building A Novel Alaa Al Aswany Books

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The Yacoubian Building A Novel Alaa Al Aswany Books

A well written novel, but I could help feeling sad turning the pages but kept reading to the end due to my desire to gain some insight into a people/culture I am not familiar with. There is not a single lovable character in the book, all petty, scheming, the powerful bullying and looking down the powerless, police/government cruel, politicians utterly corrupt and playing western democracy as a game for money and power, religious people driven by hatred rather than by any love and fear of god, no compassion in anyone, no honesty and respect ... there is not even "love" in the story but pure physical lust and shameless pursuit for it (for men only, with women being the prize and seeming to strive only for survival). There is not even humor to lighten things up. An old rake marrying a beautiful, repeated sexually exploited girl of the poor class, on the last page, is supposed to be a happy ending? for whom?
Are the characters/stories real? There is no reason to believe these are not real. Reading this story just makes one feel sad when looking at another place of human existence, and hopeless in human race. We got that from the news around the world every minutes, and I didn't enjoy reading this in a novel.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Yacoubian Building: A Novel (9780060878139): Alaa Al Aswany: Books,Alaa Al Aswany,The Yacoubian Building: A Novel,Harper Perennial,0060878134,General,Cairo (Egypt) - 21st century,Civilization, Arab - 20th century,Corruption - Egypt - 21st century,Egypt - Social life and customs,Egypt - Social life and customs - 21st century,ARABIC (LANGUAGE) CONTEMPORARY FICTION,FICTION General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,General Adult,Literary,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),United States

The Yacoubian Building A Novel Alaa Al Aswany Books Reviews

The Yacoubian Building provides a glimpse into the complicated lives of residents of an Egyptian building.

Set in the late 20th century Egypt, after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Yacoubian Building started filling up with people from Egypt's lower class, while some others from the upper and middle classes stayed put. This has given Al Aswany the opportunity to develop many interesting characters. There is a son of the doorman who struggles to make a career as a policeman, even after being good at his studies and what he does after that. His beautiful young girlfriend, who performs sexual favors for little money. A rich homosexual man, whose boyfriend moves into the building with his wife and kid. A religious old man with dreams of being a politician. His second wife, a divorced lady from a porer region of Egypt. A pre-Revolution single rich man whose life has declined dramatically after the Revolution. His girlfriends. His servant and his brother, a tailor by profession, who moves into the building.

The lives of these characters overlap and interact with each other; but otherwise, this book "feels" like a collection of short stories. Please note that they are not separate stories though.

Al Aswany's characters are well-developed and thought out in detail. The characters go through a change in their lives over the course of several events. The reasons compelling these changes are beautifully pointed out by the author poverty, sexual desparation, corruption, failure in career, etc.

Being translated from Arabic into English, the prose is not of high quality. Some of the sentences actually feel odd because of this.

There are lots of references to Egyptian culture, but I never felt lost or confused (I am not an Egyptian or an Arab, or in any way related). Having never visited Egypt, I still understood the book well. (Of course, I had an interest in knowing more about the culture.)

The X-Ray feature of is not enabled for this book. It would have been helpful to avoid referring to the glossary section at the back of the book. Still, it did not make the book overwhelming to read.

Since the decade in which the book has been mainly set, Egypt has undergone lots of socio-political changes. Lives of common Egyptians has definitely changed. However, this book captures the late 1900s and the struggles in the lives of common people well.

Overall, it is a good book to get a perspective on modern Egyptian culture.
As a daughter of parents that were born and grew up in the flourishing Jewish community of Cairo and Alexandria in the years 1920-1951, and who loved Egypt and the Egyptians, it is sad to read how the society has changed after the revolution, and how the authorities are insensitivity to the lower class people. A society where it is almost impossible to move to a better social class. It is sad to read about the cruelty of people to their dear ones, the spread of corruption almost everywhere, and the rise of extreme Islamic movements. The book is well written and well translated as one can truly feel the atmosphere and the feelings of different social classes. I find the book to be moving mainly because it is written by a native of Egypt .
I am now completely addicted to this author. His prose is beautiful and clear; I immediately understand all his many characters and their political, religious and personal lives. Through reading his books, I have grown to have a much better understanding of Egyptian culture and politics. In this tale, we follow the lives of various people who live and work in the Yacoubian building; some are rich and powerful, and some are poor and disenfranchised. As we read their interactions with the society and each other, we grow to like some, we immediately despise others, but they are all fascinating. I highly recommend this book.
A well written novel, but I could help feeling sad turning the pages but kept reading to the end due to my desire to gain some insight into a people/culture I am not familiar with. There is not a single lovable character in the book, all petty, scheming, the powerful bullying and looking down the powerless, police/government cruel, politicians utterly corrupt and playing western democracy as a game for money and power, religious people driven by hatred rather than by any love and fear of god, no compassion in anyone, no honesty and respect ... there is not even "love" in the story but pure physical lust and shameless pursuit for it (for men only, with women being the prize and seeming to strive only for survival). There is not even humor to lighten things up. An old rake marrying a beautiful, repeated sexually exploited girl of the poor class, on the last page, is supposed to be a happy ending? for whom?
Are the characters/stories real? There is no reason to believe these are not real. Reading this story just makes one feel sad when looking at another place of human existence, and hopeless in human race. We got that from the news around the world every minutes, and I didn't enjoy reading this in a novel.