Midaq Alley

Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley is a snapshot of a neighborhood stuck in the past -- but what past is uncertain. In the first paragraph, the author describes the alley as "a gem . . . a flashing star in the history of Cairo", but says that only "God and the archaeologists" know when that was the case. Clearly, by the time of our story (late 1944, early 1945), the alley is a relic, populated by the lower middle class. However, with a few exceptions, the diverse cast of characters is content to remain in the alley, with little ambition to improve their station.

Midaq Alley features a diverse cast of characters with sundry motivations, and Mahfouz's third person narration gives us a good look inside each character's head. This gives the novel a very expansive feel, since each of the first fifteen or so chapters is devoted to a different character's issues, although the transitions are relatively standard, rather than abrupt -- everything flows smoothly. Each character is fleshed out well, although some of them (such as Hamida) seem repetitive. Of course, real people are like that, so it's tough to accuse Mahfouz of being tone deaf.

As the plot of the novel (the doomed romance of Abbas and Hamida) doesn't come to prominence until halfway through the novel, it's clear that Mahfouz isn't necessarily writing about characters, but capturing the alley at a point in time, and showing the daily lives of the alley's inhabitants. While the narrative voice doesn't typically poke fun, there's some irony at work here -- witness the dialogue between the baker's wife and Zaita, the creator of beggars, as well as the situation of Radwan Husseiny -- the alley's most respected resident, despite not completing his formal schooling, being so pious as to show no sorrow at the death of his children, and consistently beating his wife loudly enough that the other residents can hear her screams. Some of the other characters feature motivations so thin as to nearly be caricatures, although they're typically presented without a wink or a smile.

I'd purchased this novel without knowing much more about Mahfouz than what's present on his Wikipedia page (the picture there resembles Ray Charles), and I was not disappointed. This novel is subtle, funny, profound, horrifying, and revealing. Would recommend.