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Third part of "The Cairo Trilogy" In the third part of "The Cairo Trilogy", life of the Abd al-Jawad family goes on. Amina's body now withered, her hair white, ill health and grief having altered her considerably. Her diligence and her capacity for running the household are now gone. She no longer pays attention to her home except for the services to her husband al-Sayyid Ahmad, once a vigorous man in full swing. He now suffers from high blood pressure and he had to give up many of the pleasures of life - drinks, women and good food. In fact, many months before dying, he is completely bedridden, a particularly humiliating situation for a man with such a strong ego. Here Mr Mahfouz casts a compassionate glance at the irony of life which makes elderly people become utterly dependant on others, as they used to be when they were infants. For Kamal, now thirty-six, it is sad to see his family age, all the more since he refuses to get married and thus spends a lot of time aloof and lonely. Aiming at becoming a true intellectual, Kamal often collides with doubt and struggles with instincts and passions and is becoming "an emotionally crippled recluse". He often broods about his youth, his love for Aïda and the eternal loss of the enchanting past. But there are also reasons to rejoice as the younger generation takes over and ascends in society. Marriages take place, careers are planned. Mr Mahfouz splendidly portrays this cycle of life in which the old generation gives way to the boisterous and cheerful young one. This is shown in the moving final scene when Kamal and his brother Yasin enter a store where the former buys several items for his daughter's baby while the latter buys a black necktie he will need when the mournful day of his mother's death arrives...
Delicious Even some of the very best long novels or series rush somewhat disconcertingly towards a conclusion as though the writer is trying to tie up loose ends speedily and get on with life or the next project. But in Mahfouz's trilogy, the pace is perfectly matched to the time period. In Sugar Street, we are plunged into rapid social changes in Egypt during the thirties and the war -- tremendous upheavals in family structure, in women's roles, in politics, and not surprisingly in the lives of the characters. Someone wrote in these reviews that at least some of the characters suffered in unlikely ways. But this reviewer is probably not a surviver of a typhoid epidemic, or World War II, nor yet experiencing the delights and the disappointments of age. In my view, the Cairo Trilogy is a gem, and Sugar Street is a real pleasure. I may have to turn around and reread all three books before I can reshelve them.
disappointing If you enjoyed "Palace Walk," and even "Palace of Desire," you will have to agree that this book is disapointing. It is shorter than the others (notably so) and with far less to say. The family falls into such a decline in this story as to lack believability. Mahfouz's treatment of one of his characters -- Aisha -- the youngest daughter of the family and considered very beautiful -- is unbelievably harsh. Happily for us, it is nearly impossible for a real life person to have a life as tragic as Aisha's. Her tragedy makes absolutely no sense and ruins the book for me, making me wonder whether Mahfouz might be some sort of mysogynist. No one else has a really great life to contrast either. My advice: Read "Palace Walk" and then move on to something else.
a little too forced, but still great Not as good as the first two. But still, such a great story
Not as good as the first two, but still great Sugar Street is the continuing saga of the Al Jawad family, yet the book is more tinged with a feeling of despair, seeing as the familiar characters have all grown old, Aisha grown older still, and Ahmad confined to bed. However, it gives a sense of closure, and there is no reading Palace Walk and Palace of Desire without reading Sugar Street.
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