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Title	:	السكرية (The Cairo Trilogy #3)
Author	:	Naguib Mahfouz
Book Format	:	Mass Market Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 332 pages
Published	:	by مكتبة مصر (first published 1957)
Categories	:	Fiction. Northern Africa. Egypt. Novels. Historical. Historical Fiction

السكرية (The Cairo Trilogy #3)

Naguib Mahfouz

Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 332 pages

Rating: 4.25 | 6057 Users | 616 Reviews

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Decades of whoring and drink have finally caught up with the old roué, Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. He is enfeebled, must eat yogurt at every meal, takes his medication and does not unduly strain himself. I cannot really give a sense of the depths of this man's hypocrisy. He exacted piety for God and himself at home for decades, while participating in the most dissolute of lifestyles with his besotted cronies. For that story you will have to read the two excellent predecessors in this trilogy, Palace Walk and Palace of Desire. In Sugar Street, after so much debauchery, Ahmad Abd al-Jawad is failing. There is the inevitable moment of schadenfreude for the reader but Mahfouz is so nimble a writer that he's actually able to evoke pity in the reader for terrible old Ahmad. His household is also declining. His sons have gone their separate ways. His wives are withering in the harsh climate. It's a sad, rather abandoned house we come upon at the start of the novel, where before all was youthful vibrancy. Coffee Fridays nevertheless still take place, and it is on those days that the house returns to a semblance of its former life.

The story spans 1935 to 1944. Egypt seeks to shuck the British yoke. British Foreign Minister Sir Samuel Hoare has just admitted his contempt for the Egyptian independence movement, which in turn elicits student rioting, which in turn elicits soldiers firing into crowds of unarmed demonstrators. Later, discussing these crimes with his drunken pals, Ahmad becomes alarmed when he learns that his son, Kamal, has been visiting a brothel where he is well known. Yasin, another son, is perhaps just as debauched as his father but without the cruelty. Yasin’s son, Ridwan, a beautiful boy and Ahmad's grandson, is just beginning to be introduced to homosexual admirers. The whole trilogy is a not so subtle critique of Egyptian society. One particularly annoying aspect of the most wanton characters is their constant verbal reverence for God. Thus the pasha who is about to seduce Ridwan says "Glory be to the One who alone is compassionate" and suchlike. Such false piety almost functions like an indicator of a character's hypocrisy. The more they indulge in such language the more morally unhinged they are likely to be.

What I find most exciting about the book is its topical scope. There seems to be nothing that Mahfouz cannot with ease incorporate into his narrative: the moral and ethical trials of Egypt's people, surely, but also the course of the country's independence movement and how that touches everyone. Mahfouz moves effortlessly from domestic scene to discussions of Shari'a, from a dissection of political parties to interesting asides on the futility of philosophy, from a criticism of Islam as being too primitive in this day and age, to an inquiry into what the next generation is to do for its livelihood. How will the political changes that ramify during the course of the novel affect them? How will they shake off the disillusionment of 54 years of British occupation? No wonder they drink. I don’t think it a stretch to say that Mahfouz sees the dissolution of many of his countrymen and women as a result of the occupation and its attendant humiliations.

The plight of women is a most depressing one. Ahmad's daughter Aisha perhaps best exemplifies this. She is incapable of seeing herself as inherently worthy outside her role as a mother or wife. When she is divorced by her husband and later when her beautiful young daughter dies in childbirth, she is unable to emerge from a prolonged depression. She possesses no sense of self worth and wastes away. Meanwhile, most of the fathers decide not to send their daughters to secondary school since they will not work in the end but "only marry." The sight of a woman at the local university is rare. Egypt is a male province. When al-Sayyid Ahmad dies the mourning of the family is profound. This strikes me as unutterably sad. For most of his life Ahmad was a debauchee, hypocrite and household tyrant. (I can still remember the anger I felt when reading of his cruelty in the first two volumes years ago.) The cause of so much suffering, now he is mourned as perhaps Stalin was once mourned. Ahmad’s Elder son Kamal after an early heartbreak cannot even contemplate marriage. This makes Kamal, like the gay Ridwan, virtual freaks in a culture where marriage is discussed and entered into with a fervor I can think of no literary parallel for except the novels of Jane Austen. Please don’t let my general discussion of some of the story elements put you off. There is no such thing as a spoiler with a writer like Mahfouz. He instills every scene, every characters' actions and thoughts, with a sense of urgency that drives the reader onward. What a writer!

Be Specific About Books In Pursuance Of السكرية (The Cairo Trilogy #3)

ISBN:	9773162206
Edition Language:	Arabic
Series:	The Cairo Trilogy #3
Setting:	Cairo(Egypt)

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Ratings: 4.25 From 6057 Users | 616 Reviews

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The last of The Cairo Trilogy books, this is as beautiful and heartbreaking as the other two books. I am inspired to read more works by Mahfouz.

The final book in the Cairo trilogy, which doesn't tie things up neatly, but ends with characters being imprisoned, dead, unhappy, etc., and Egypt not yet out from under British rule. The family dynamic has changed with the passing of the years, and some characters are now aged or aging while other characters are entering adult life. The family has experienced much sorrow and tragedy, as well as happiness and celebration, and this book continues in that vein. We watch as Egypt is unwillingly

This is the third book of the Cairo Trilogy. Sometimes, I think the Nobel prize is given to a particular author for "political" reasons and the literary aspects are not so relevant. It's a matter of opinion of course. I am glad I managed to finished this trilogy.

Excellent end to an excellent trilogy. Not quite as good as the first two.

I just finished Palace of Desire in 2019 and didn't plan on reading Sugar Street until next year. But last month I was looking for something enjoyable to read and so far, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Cairo trilogy. Sugar Street reminds me of a street in Hong Kong with the same name, where many Indonesian shops and restaurants are located. But this is an entire different Sugar Street. While the first book introduced us to Abd-al-Jawad's family and the second book followed Kamal's growth

Volume 3- Mission accomplished. Well worth it.

Aha! I finished The Cairo Trilogy. With this last book, Naguib Mahfouz takes the family of Ahmad Abd Al-Jawad through an existential squeeze.Sugar Street differs from the first two books of the trilogy, too, because the focus of the book shifts from al-Sayyid Ahmad to his son, Kamal, primary custodian of the aforementioned angst. In a society that has family at its center, Kamal just cannot bring himself to marry, no matter how he tries. No, Kamal's not gay -- that would be Kamal's nephew, with