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The Yacoubian Building: A Novel Alaa Al Aswany
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A diverse set of characters all trying to co-exist in the Yacoubian Building. The Yacoubian Building is a rich and multi-layered examination of the intersections of sex, race, class, and state violence in modern Egypt. I think that regardless of whether a narrative is easy to read or not the author makes specific choices before he or she decides to publish a novel. The work is not a polemic for a neo-con think-tank but a novel, The Yacoubian Building, by the Egyptian writer Alaa al-Aswany. The Yacoubian Building isn't this year's The Bestof Youth, but with one or two positive reviews from American critics wowed by the Egyptian film's scope. The Yacoubian Building, a novel by Alaa Al Aswany, recently made into a movie (which I have yet to see), is set in Cairo around 1991 in a building which really exists (pictured below) at 34 Talaat Harb street. Aswani has been using his pen to draw reality checks on daily life in Egypt. It's hard to find popular Arabic (or Middle Eastern in general) novels translated into English, which makes the Alaa Al Aswany's Yacoubian Building a perfect opportunity to read an Arabic novel. Four Movies in Two Days: The Yacoubian Building; Two Players from the Bench; Blessed By Fire; Crime Novel. The setting of this novel takes place in Egypt. I was surprised to hear how well the book was received in the group. Really?" I like to think I'm reasonably well-informed but the protests in Egypt definitely surprised me. The characters in the novel are a cosmopolitan lot. Everyone I know has read or is reading Alaa ElAswany's "Umaret Yacoubian". Sixteen attendees at the Montrose Great Books book club on June 2, 2011 gathered to discuss THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING . Yet unlike Mistry's book, the Yacoubian building does not end in despair. A dentist by day, his two bestsellers, The Yacoubian Building (2002) and Chicago (2007), have rapidly propelled him to international notoriety. It is a bit like 'A Fine Balance'- almost everything bad that can happen in India happens to the four likeable protagonists of Rohington Mistry's novel.