Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

I have lived most of my life in the west, therefore I feel that I should post the following disclaimer for (eastern) readers before my review of The Yacoubian Building:

A) I am not easily offended, specifically by homosexuality or sexuality

B) I am biased towards anything that is reminiscent of Egyptian society or culture, especially literature and music

C) I read the English translation of the original Arabic novel, so I am certain something was lost (or added) in translation

D) The story depicts the worst of Egyptian society, and does it well, but it purposely leaves out the positve traits in Egypt and Egyptians (e.g. don’t generalize!)
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The novel, The Yacoubian Building by Alaa AlAswany is an excellent commentary on the ills of Egyptian society. It sheds light on topics such as corruption, torture, terrorism, poverty and homosexuality. The blunt political criticism of the government in every way, shape and form is what I admired most about the story. At one point, one of AlAswany’s characters goes into this rant:

Our Lord created the Egyptians to accept government authority. No Egyptian can go against his government. Some peoples are excitable and rebellious by nature but the Egyptian keeps his head down his whole life long so he can eat . . . The Egyptians are the easiest people in the world to rule. The moment you take power they submit to you and grovel to you and you can do what you want with them.

There is a great deal of truth to these words, so much so that while I am surprised they survived state censors, I cannot help but wonder what did not make the cut. But, they also serve another purpose, that is to provoke the reader and attempt to instigate a mental reaction against the statement, and inturn against the current political situation in Egypt.

AlAswany’s characters exemplify all that is wrong with Egyptian society today. Among his characters are the corrupt politician; the drug trafficking businessman posing as a pious religious figure while bribing his way into parliament; the arrogant homosexual who uses a poor man to fulfill his sexual needs, while financially controlling him; the girl immersed in poverty who has to sacrifice her principles in order to support her family; and the hardworking student who is shunned by society because of his poverty, physically and psychologically abused by security forces and in turn exploited by a terrorist organization.

But what was apparent about most of the events and characters in the novel is that they seemed real, too real to be completely fictitious. AlAswany is currently being sued in Egyptian courts by Yacoubian building residents claiming that the characters in the novel are based on real life residents. Whether that holds any truth or not will not take away from the novel’s impact.

The only drawback I found in the novel was the explicit description of sexual acts, be them heterosexual or homosexual. It seems that AlAswany attempts to use these scenes to shock the reader into realizing that these issues exist in modern Egyptian society. But unfortunately, for the average Egyptian reader these scenes may detract from the novel’s underlying message that our society has issues that must be addressed. The one scene that was unnecessarily explicit, was the one describing what amounts to child molestation. That, I felt, is where the author took his “shock them into believing” approach too far.

Overall, I thought the novel was well organized, albeit more similar to a movie script than a novel, the characters representative of the worst of Egypt, and the plot presented in a believable manner. I would recommend The Yacoubian Building to Egyptians and non-Egyptians alike with reservations. Mainly due to the unneeded sexually descriptive portions, and the overzealous generalizations (about homosexuals, women, and sometimes society as a whole) that may have done more harm than good to the story. Alaa AlAswany takes topics that are traditionally swept under the rug, and effectively catapults them into the limelight.

The film adaptation, already completed, will be interesting to watch. But as always, read the book first, if not instead of, watching it on screen.

Tags: The Yacoubian Building, Alaa AlAswany, Egyptian society, Modern Egyptian Literature