The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

This is going to have to be a bit of a different review, not only because I no longer have access to the book (I know, I could check it out from the library...but that takes work) but also because it isn't going to make the cut, GASP!

We originally put this novel on the list because we were looking to add a bit of, shall we say, diversity to the list. Like the halls of congress, the western literary world is littered with old dead white guys with the occasional woman/minority thrown in. This book is apparently the highest selling book in the Arab speaking world, but I suppose we should not have confused popularity for quality. That's not to say it's a bad book, just not good enough to make the list.

The Yacoubian Building is the story of the residents of the Yacoubian Building, a real-life building in downtown Cairo. It jumps around between the lives of those who live in shacks on the roof of the building and those who live in the run down opulence below them. Almost exactly like the book cover above, whoa.

Readability: Easily read. My only issue was keeping track of names (probably due to my unfortunate ignorance of Arabic names) and difficulty with transitions between story lines.

Enjoyability: I never really got into it. I just kept reading it to, well, finish it, and then pawned it off on a friend as soon as possible (and I have a book collecting addiction, to a serious degree).

Favorite quote(s):,Favorite character:, Least favorite character: Yep, don't have the book anymore...

Social impact: As I said earlier, this is the top-selling novel in the Arab world and it does deal with many an important, and controversial, issue-homosexuality, terrorism, women's roles/sexuality, poverty etc. but it deals with them in a way that, no offense intended, feels very stale, old-fashioned and sometimes insulting. I know, I should step back and view this from the position of someone in the Arab world where ideas like those explored in this book probably are fairly revolutionary but, from by white-person-privileged-American perspective it just doesn't work. It's sometimes like reading an 'enlightened' Victorian talk about 'women's problems.'

Greatest impact: I found the transition of one of the characters from a bright boy living in poverty to member of a terrorist cell fascinating.


Recommended for: People interested in learning more about Egyptians and Egyptian society, from a fairly mediocre book.

Overall: Eh.