Palace of Desire (The Cairo Trilogy) (utgåvan 2006)

The second book in the series was as fascinating as the first. This volume focuses on the sons of Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, Kamal and Yasin, who are young men navigating a changing world. Yasin is pretty hopeless. He marries repeatedly, but continues to get into trouble. Kamal starts university, falls in love, has his heart broken, and questions his faith. The father's excesses continue but he increasingly needs to face his own age and the embarrassing likeliness of running into one of his sons during his nightly parties. ( )

Ahmad Abd el-Gawwad ve como sus hijos comienzan a cuestionar su tiránica autoridad al mismo tiempo que Egipto lucha por liberarse de la tutela colonial. Un padre y una nación que vivían anclados en el islamismo tradicional asisten en pocos años a la corrosiva influencia de la sociedad moderna occidental. Un entresijo de pasiones amorosas e ideológicas estalla en el seno de la familia. ( )

I am glad that a friend warned me that this second book in the Cairo trilogy would not live up to the first one (which I loved) -- this one, though well written, wasn't nearly as interesting to me. The women in the family are much more in the background for one thing; another is that Kamal, the youngest son, spends long sections rhapsodizing about his first love Aïda. He didn't seem to know her at all; in fact, it was more that he was in love with being in love. Yasin and his father both continue to behave as they did in the first book, though the father's behaviour towards his family was a little softened.

I do look forward to the final book in this trilogy! ( )

A continuation of Palace Walk which showed the perspectives of each member of an entire Egyptian family, their strengths, weaknesses and hypocrisies, all set in patriarchal Egypt, Palace of Desire took on more male-centric inner monologues. The views of Al-Sayid Ahmad, Yasim and Kamal and their at-times infuriating hypocritical or idealistic justifications sideline the voices of Amina, Khadija and Aisha are relegated to the background which unbalances the book overall.

In any case, the author continues painting a detailed and realistic portrait of a Egyptian family whose common grief, clashing personalities and religious background colour and is interwoven in their daily life, their speech and their actions. After all, where else can the appearance of beer and ham cause friction between friends and reveal so much about the characters? Recommended for fans for Palace Walk, of course.

Aside: in the confrontation between Bahija and Yasim, she dropped so many hints about his father, I was yelling at him to notice but of course he didn't. It seems unlike that he'll be having the epiphany in the next book ( )

'You're a failure as a father. Your best son has died, the second's a loss and the third is headstrong'
By sally tarbox on 21 Feb. 2014
Format: Paperback
The superb follow-up to 'Palace Walk' resumes the family saga five years on. Patriarch Ahmad is slightly less of a tyrant since the tragedy:

'It was not out of the question at such a moment for Kamal to ask his father politely ''When will custody of Ridwan revert to his father, Papa?" In that way he demonstrated the dramatic transformation of his relationship to his father.
Al -Sayidd Ahmad had replied "When he turns seven" instead of screaming "Shut up, you son of a bitch!"

Wife Amina enjoys permission to venture out - a little - and has even started speaking her mind on occasion. With the daughters married off, the principal action in this volume comes from the menfolk, notably youngest son Kamal, who has fallen desperately in love with the sister of a wealthy schoolfriend. His pure and obsessive adoration for Aida is utterly compelling, as we follow his maturing and his changes in beliefs.
Older brother Yasin meanwhile continues a life of loose-living; and after a period of abstinence Ahmad too has taken to nights out again, and a new mistress...
Absolutely unputdownable; Mahfouz leaves us on a cliffhanger that means you just have to start on volume 3! ( )