Review by Choice Review
Fascinating and absorbing, this book comprises about a hundred short selections from the writings of 60 authors, almost all written originally in Arabic and here expertly translated into English. The pieces were written over the past century, and Mahrez (Arabic literature and translation studies, American Univ. in Cairo) interweaves threads of social, political, and private life in Cairo to form a rich tapestry. She arranges the selections under seven broad headings, for example "Icons of the City," "Women in the City," "Cairo's Underworld.. Most interesting to this reviewer were the pieces in the sections "Going to School in Cairo" and "Cairo's Drug Culture.. Many of the authors--Edward Said, Naguib Mahfouz, Taha Hussein, Mourid Barghouti--will be familiar to specialists in Middle Eastern literature, but others are less known in the West. One need not be familiar with the geography of Cairo to be drawn deeply into this book, but those who do know the city will want to read it together with its companion volume, Mehrez's The Literary Atlas of Cairo (2010). This pair of works could become a model for portraying the literary life in other great cities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. W. L. Hanaway emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
