Proud beggars /

Proud beggars /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Cossery, Albert, 1913-2008.
Uniform title:	Mendiants et orgueilleux. English
Imprint:	New York : New York Review Books, [2011]
Description:	xv, 171 p. ; 21 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	New York Review Books classics New York Review Books classics.
Subject:	Beggars. Murder. Egypt -- Cairo. Black humor. Fiction.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/9023825

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Cushing, Thomas W.
ISBN:	9781590174425 1590174429
Summary:	"Early in Proud Beggars, a brutal and motiveless murder is committed in a Cairo brothel. But the real mystery at the heart of Albert Cossery's wry black comedy is not the cause of this death, but the paradoxical richness to be found in even the most materially impoverished life. Chief among Cossery's characteristically proud beggars is Gohar, a former professor turned beggar, whorehouse accountant, hashish aficionado, and street philosopher. Such is his native charm that he has accumulated a small coterie that includes Yeghen, a rhapsodic poet and drug dealer and El Kordi, an ineffectual clerk and would-be revolutionary who dreams of rescuing a consumptive prostitute from her miserable life. The police investigator Nour El Din, harboring a dark secret of his own, suspects all three of the brothel murder, but finds himself captivated by their warm good humor. He is drawn to these men. How is it that they live surrounded by degrading poverty, yet possess a joie de vivre that even the most assiduous forces of state cannot suppress? Do they, despite their rejection of social norms and all ambition, hold the secret of earthly contentment? And so this short novel, considered one of Cossery's masterpieces, is at once biting social commentary, police procedural, and a mischievous delight in its own right"--

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Holdings details from Regenstein, Bookstacks
Call Number:	PQ2605.O725 M413 2011
c.1	Available Loan period: standard loan Scan and Deliver Request for Pickup Need help? - Ask a Librarian