Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Examples can be found on literally every page" - Rasheed El-Enany, Third World Quarterly
What constitutes modern and spirited prose in Arabic has been rendered in a largely dated and stilted English register particularly so in the dialogue. Not so unfortunately the present translation fails to capture the spirit of the Arabic text and does little justice to Mahfouz's style. "It is a great novel by any criterion.He writes about family, and to understand the Egyptian family is to understand, more clearly than any political treatise can explain, the soul of the country." - Christopher Dickey, Newsweek He drew heavily on autobiography (like the character Kamal, he was the youngest son in a large merchant clan). " Palace Walk, first published in 1956, is the best of Mahfouz's work.But the reader would be better able to savor those moments, perhaps, if Mahfouz's sympathy with the patriarch were not so patent, if the book were not so much pervaded by nostalgia for a time when Men were Men." - Amitav Ghosh, The New Republic "There are some perceptive observations about the psychology of patriarchy - there is a wonderful scene, for example, in which the patriarch's son, a brave and ardent nationalist, finds himself reduced to a quaking heap by the tone of his father's voice.Mahfouz seems fascinated by the details of his characters' lives, at the expense of all else." - Jake Morrissey, National Review "Without a framework that would compel the reader through the novel, Palace Walk is more like a well written forced march than a pleasure trip.(.) In his own language Mahfouz is celebrated for the classical elegance of his style this English is alternately stodgy, clumsy and jarringly anachronistic." - Richard Dyer, Boston Globe (.) For leisurely page after leisurely page nothing much seems to happen, although these same pages are rich in psychological insight and cultural observation. "Much of the novel is devoted to the immemorial rhythms of family life behind the walls of the house on Palace Walk, the morning baking of bread, the coffee-hour conversations of the mother and her children, the teasing and bickering among the siblings, the yearnings each of them feels to escape a tyranny they are bound to by religious law but a tyranny that they also love and respect.Part I of The Cairo Trilogy, which also includes:Ī- : powerful, if narrowly focussed family portrait.Translated by William Maynard Hutchins and Olive E.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.
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