From Alaa Al Aswany, the author of the highly-acclaimed The Yacoubian Building, comes a story of love, sex, friendship, hatred, and ambition set in the midwestern city with a cast of American and Arab characters achingly human in their desires and needs. Chicago offers an illuminating portrait of America—a complex, often contradictory land in which triumph and failure, opportunity and oppression, licentiousness and tender love, small dramas and big dreams, coexist.
Chicago: A Novel (P.S.)
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From Publishers Weekly
Egyptian author al Aswany (The Yacoubian Building) weaves a vivid tapestry of clashing cultures in post-9/11 Chicago. Dr. Ra'fat Thabit, an Egyptian-American professor at the University of Illinois Medical School, has burrowed deep into American culture, but finds his identity threatened after his rebellious daughter falls under the sway of a shady boyfriend. Ra'fat's colleague, Dr. Muhammad Shamay, retreats from his American wife into extended reveries of his life in Cairo in the 1970s when he was young and in love with a revolutionary. His histology student, Nagi Abd al-Samad, really wants to be a poet. Nagi begins a relationship with an American girl named Wendy (who just so happens to be Jewish). Meanwhile, Shymaa Muhammadi, a medical student who wears a veil, finds her traditional values under siege when Tariq Haseeb, another Egyptian med student, begins seducing her with dogged persistence. The characters are beautifully realized—Ra'fat's family trouble is especially well done—and though their cumulative effect is muted, each of the story lines is individually compelling. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
“Egyptian author Al Aswany weaves a vivid tapestry of clashing cultures in post 9/11 Chicago. . . . The characters are beautifully realized [and] each of the story lines is individually compelling.” (Publishers Weekly )
“...Al Aswany’s knack for making the personal political.” (New York magazine )
“While the book explores political points, it’s ultimately a pluralist drama, complete with cliffhangers.” (Washington Post Express )
“Aswany sensitively probes the nature of courage and patriotism. . . . [T]he story moves in surprising directions, and the ambiguity of life is well reflected in an unabashedly untidy conclusion. (The New Yorker )
“Al Aswany writes about his Egyptian characters with charm, gentle humor, and genuine conviction.” (New York Times Book Review )
“...Al Aswany’s knack for making the personal political.” (New York magazine )
“While the book explores political points, it’s ultimately a pluralist drama, complete with cliffhangers.” (Washington Post Express )
“Aswany sensitively probes the nature of courage and patriotism. . . . [T]he story moves in surprising directions, and the ambiguity of life is well reflected in an unabashedly untidy conclusion. (The New Yorker )
“Al Aswany writes about his Egyptian characters with charm, gentle humor, and genuine conviction.” (New York Times Book Review )
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Although this novel is set in the city of Chicago many of its characters have extending lives, hopes and aspirations back to their home country in Egypt. About the immigrant experience and about the human condition, the people that pepper Alaa Al Aswany's story are cocooned in their new city, either as newly arrived students or those who consider themselves so completely American, but still hold the delicate cultural tendrils for their homeland. With very little plot the story reverberates around the oblique relationships of a number of conflicted characters, beginning in the campus of the University of Illinois Medical Centre. It is here that we meet Ra'fat, who came to the United States in the 1960's but now spurns his birth country: "I have quit being an Egyptian" he fanatically tells his work colleagues.
Married to Chris, an American, Ra'fat clashes with her over what to do about their rebellious daughter Sarah. He's in the grip of deathly jealously towards her current artist boyfriend Jeff and he just can't stand the idea that his daughter is in love with another man and be having a relationship outside marriage. Jeff likes to snort drugs and seems to be holding Sarah in his deadly psychedelic grip. When Ra'fat isn't pouring his heart out to John Graham, an old leftist hippy who marched in the civil rights movement, he's haranguing in defense of Western culture with perhaps even the mentality of the Eastern men which he constantly attacks and mocks.
Meanwhile, the vulnerable Nagi writes a journal that no else will read, an aspiring poet he writes for himself in order to record the points of change in his life while he moves from his old world, the only world he's known to a new and exciting world that seems to be filled with possibilities and probabilities. It is the young students Shaymaa and Tariq who give the novel its romantic core. Shaymaa holds on to her diligence and persistence, determined to turn over a new leaf and leave behind the 35 years of life in Egypt. Even as she lands at O'Hare Airport she battles her feelings of dejection as she faces the waves of Americans, men and women, "streaming forth from all directions" and shying away from her because "I am Arab and because I am veiled."
Taraq loves Shaymaa and respects her and wants to embrace her, to express his feelings, no more no less. But he seems at war against the material he must study and the sexual desires that so consume him. Certainly the months that Shaymaa spends in Chicago made her think about her life differently and she begins to have doubts about the established principles she grew up holding to be sacred. As Taraq and Shaymaa play out their affair, the other characters in the drama all come together, acting out their various bi-cultural dysfunctions with an unpredictably that fuels much of the drama. Perhaps the most heartbreaking character is Marwa, Danana's unhappy wife who has been forced to give up on her dream of grand love. Content to immerse herself in he dreams, she regrets that she has married such a mature man who has unfortunately turned out to be a bully and a tyrant and who abuses and mistreats her.
When the novel isn't descending into colorful melodrama, many of the characters are either raging against the evils and decadence of America or waxing poetic about the systematic corruption back in their homeland. Sexuality, American racism and radical politics both in the USA and in Egypt reverberate throughout, while Aswany intuitively highlights some the many problems that Egyptian immigrants have "fitting in" to American society. Often the author is too didactic, the narrative reading like an over-extended lecture, yet the story is also filled with a vibrant energy, particularly the energy of the city of Chicago, dramatic and erotic, and also poignant, this is often a seductive tale of various characters as they try to cope with their lot in life, often torn between the old as they search for meaning and a place in the new world. Mike Leonard January 09.
Married to Chris, an American, Ra'fat clashes with her over what to do about their rebellious daughter Sarah. He's in the grip of deathly jealously towards her current artist boyfriend Jeff and he just can't stand the idea that his daughter is in love with another man and be having a relationship outside marriage. Jeff likes to snort drugs and seems to be holding Sarah in his deadly psychedelic grip. When Ra'fat isn't pouring his heart out to John Graham, an old leftist hippy who marched in the civil rights movement, he's haranguing in defense of Western culture with perhaps even the mentality of the Eastern men which he constantly attacks and mocks.
Meanwhile, the vulnerable Nagi writes a journal that no else will read, an aspiring poet he writes for himself in order to record the points of change in his life while he moves from his old world, the only world he's known to a new and exciting world that seems to be filled with possibilities and probabilities. It is the young students Shaymaa and Tariq who give the novel its romantic core. Shaymaa holds on to her diligence and persistence, determined to turn over a new leaf and leave behind the 35 years of life in Egypt. Even as she lands at O'Hare Airport she battles her feelings of dejection as she faces the waves of Americans, men and women, "streaming forth from all directions" and shying away from her because "I am Arab and because I am veiled."
Taraq loves Shaymaa and respects her and wants to embrace her, to express his feelings, no more no less. But he seems at war against the material he must study and the sexual desires that so consume him. Certainly the months that Shaymaa spends in Chicago made her think about her life differently and she begins to have doubts about the established principles she grew up holding to be sacred. As Taraq and Shaymaa play out their affair, the other characters in the drama all come together, acting out their various bi-cultural dysfunctions with an unpredictably that fuels much of the drama. Perhaps the most heartbreaking character is Marwa, Danana's unhappy wife who has been forced to give up on her dream of grand love. Content to immerse herself in he dreams, she regrets that she has married such a mature man who has unfortunately turned out to be a bully and a tyrant and who abuses and mistreats her.
When the novel isn't descending into colorful melodrama, many of the characters are either raging against the evils and decadence of America or waxing poetic about the systematic corruption back in their homeland. Sexuality, American racism and radical politics both in the USA and in Egypt reverberate throughout, while Aswany intuitively highlights some the many problems that Egyptian immigrants have "fitting in" to American society. Often the author is too didactic, the narrative reading like an over-extended lecture, yet the story is also filled with a vibrant energy, particularly the energy of the city of Chicago, dramatic and erotic, and also poignant, this is often a seductive tale of various characters as they try to cope with their lot in life, often torn between the old as they search for meaning and a place in the new world. Mike Leonard January 09.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars
53 reviews
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
July 28 2008
By Matthew Smith
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
I must say I had the wrong impression of this book from reading the product description. I was afraid this book was going to be something a bit tawdry and maybe even a little harlequinesque because the description focused quite a bit on the sex aspects of this book. Instead the book was a powerful look at people from different backgrounds coming into contact with vastly different personalities sometimes making connections and other times crashing into one another altering their lives forever. The sex in the book was integral to the plot and was anything but tawdry or gratuitous. Sex is a central aspect of all our lives and the author uses sex as a vehicle to expose greater truths about ourselves in intimate detail.
One thing that amazes me (although it really shouldn't) is how much I relate to some of the Egyptian characters in this novel that come from conservative religious backgrounds. Coming from a conservative southern Baptist background myself I find myself surprised to be relating with characters from a different religion and different cultures. For me this is simply more evidence that we are not anywhere near as different as we sometimes imagine we are.
The plot centers on Chicago University Histology department, and the author uses different narrative techniques to tell his characters stories. His transitions between characters is very fluid, and his use of the first person narrative with one character gives the book a deeper intimacy than the it would have had written solely in the third person. The transitions are what really moves the book forward and gives it a dramatic feel. The author chooses highly dramatic moments for his paragraph breaks and character transitions which leaves the reader wanting more. I had a hard time putting the book down at times because I wanted to find out what happened to one character or another. I really love when an author is able to employ this technique effectively which this author has done.
The author does an excellent job juxtaposing the old guard with the next generation as it comes up in the same world they once came up in. The old Egyptian emigrants stand in stark contrast to the idealism and optimism of the younger generation coming to school under them. Each character seems to represent immigrant experience in different ways. You have the one character who disowns his Egyptian roots completely (or so he thinks) to become fully "Americanized" and cast off the "backwardness" of Egyptian society. Then there are those who feel they have betrayed their country and live guilt riddled lives. These characters tend to focus the reader in the almost completely cyclical nature of our lives as the young Egyptians idealism forces them down much the same paths of those who came before them.
I really hate when people discuss the ending of books, but I am going to finish by saying a little something about the end. I am going to be vague so as not to ruin anything, but if you are like me then I would stop reading now. The way the author was leading the book towards its conclusion I was afraid I was going to have to stomach a marshmallow, cushy ending that would have disappointed me greatly. Instead the author has a fabulous ending I really enjoyed, and that's all I will say.
I picked up this book because I was looking for some books by authors from this part of the world, and this book did not disappoint at all. It was a fun, dramatic and quick read. The characters were all engaging and forced you to care and read on. The translation was excellent, and now I have an author I am going to go back and read his earlier stuff and anything he writes in the future. I highly recommend this book.
One thing that amazes me (although it really shouldn't) is how much I relate to some of the Egyptian characters in this novel that come from conservative religious backgrounds. Coming from a conservative southern Baptist background myself I find myself surprised to be relating with characters from a different religion and different cultures. For me this is simply more evidence that we are not anywhere near as different as we sometimes imagine we are.
The plot centers on Chicago University Histology department, and the author uses different narrative techniques to tell his characters stories. His transitions between characters is very fluid, and his use of the first person narrative with one character gives the book a deeper intimacy than the it would have had written solely in the third person. The transitions are what really moves the book forward and gives it a dramatic feel. The author chooses highly dramatic moments for his paragraph breaks and character transitions which leaves the reader wanting more. I had a hard time putting the book down at times because I wanted to find out what happened to one character or another. I really love when an author is able to employ this technique effectively which this author has done.
The author does an excellent job juxtaposing the old guard with the next generation as it comes up in the same world they once came up in. The old Egyptian emigrants stand in stark contrast to the idealism and optimism of the younger generation coming to school under them. Each character seems to represent immigrant experience in different ways. You have the one character who disowns his Egyptian roots completely (or so he thinks) to become fully "Americanized" and cast off the "backwardness" of Egyptian society. Then there are those who feel they have betrayed their country and live guilt riddled lives. These characters tend to focus the reader in the almost completely cyclical nature of our lives as the young Egyptians idealism forces them down much the same paths of those who came before them.
I really hate when people discuss the ending of books, but I am going to finish by saying a little something about the end. I am going to be vague so as not to ruin anything, but if you are like me then I would stop reading now. The way the author was leading the book towards its conclusion I was afraid I was going to have to stomach a marshmallow, cushy ending that would have disappointed me greatly. Instead the author has a fabulous ending I really enjoyed, and that's all I will say.
I picked up this book because I was looking for some books by authors from this part of the world, and this book did not disappoint at all. It was a fun, dramatic and quick read. The characters were all engaging and forced you to care and read on. The translation was excellent, and now I have an author I am going to go back and read his earlier stuff and anything he writes in the future. I highly recommend this book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't Travel Too Well
Aug 22 2008
By Lawrence A. Schenbeck
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
This second novel by an acclaimed Egyptian journalist (and full-time dentist, apparently) is set in Chicago, Illinois. Which is, as most people reading this will know, a big city on the shores of Lake Michigan in North America. If you didn't know that, no problem. The author takes the first few pages of the book to give you a potted history of the city, complete with early genocides committed against the natives and the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
That part is aimed, I guess, at readers in Cairo who might not have a strong notion of just where or what Chicago is. I mean, it doesn't seem to be presented in an ironic or particularly humorous way, or as a postmodern touch.
Thankfully the book moves on quickly to its main stories, a set of interlocking portraits of Egyptian students and emigres living in Chicago with their assorted spouses, lovers, and colleagues, some of whom are fellow emigres and some of whom are blonde or wear cowboy boots or whatever, and so are meant to represent native-born Americans. In superficial terms, then, this book resembles Zadie Smith's phenomenal "White Teeth," which deals with a group of Caribbean and South Asian emigres and native-born locals in a London suburb.
But Smith's novel is a masterpiece and already a classic, so it's probably not fair to make many comparisons with "Chicago," which often struggles just to get its stories told. Smith created memorable, quirky, individual characters and set them in motion to create a wholly unique series of events and experiences. Alaa Al Aswany has a journalist's instinct for sketching recognizable, culturally representative personalities, as long as they're Egyptian. So here we get the young radical (a misunderstood poet), the conniving president of a foreign students' union (who is also a religious hypocrite, a male chauvinist pig, and -- just in case you still missed the point -- a moocher with a secret bank account), a naturalized American who has deliberately rejected every shred of his Egyptian heritage and never fails to put down Egypt and all Egyptians in all his public conversations. And so on, including a young, observant Muslim woman, who has her values shaken by her encounter with American culture. Imagine that. There are others, but you can probably figure them out yourself if you've watched CNN for the last couple of years.
And these are the well-drawn characters. The problem is that there's virtually nothing surprising about any of them, so they come across more as types than as actual humans. Their predicaments are predictable, and so are their responses. By comparison, the "Americans" in the novel are stick figures. With their stock dialogue and limited responses, they seem to be there mostly to push the plots along. (I'm about halfway through the novel right now, so I'll report back when I'm finished, if anything actually changes about the whole character thing.)
Part of the disappointment of this novel doesn't reside with the author's work, however. It has apparently received the crudest, clumsiest translation I've ever encountered in a book first written in another language. At least I think that must be the problem. The prose seems wooden and childish at many points; surely the literate Egyptians who praised this novel and its predecessor didn't have to deal with the awkward locutions of the English here. (Or maybe they were so excited by the frank depictions of governmental corruption and the characters' sexy behavior that they overlooked its lack of purely literary merit?)
Some people will probably recognize themselves in the pages of "Chicago," especially if they squint. Everyone else can walk on by.
That part is aimed, I guess, at readers in Cairo who might not have a strong notion of just where or what Chicago is. I mean, it doesn't seem to be presented in an ironic or particularly humorous way, or as a postmodern touch.
Thankfully the book moves on quickly to its main stories, a set of interlocking portraits of Egyptian students and emigres living in Chicago with their assorted spouses, lovers, and colleagues, some of whom are fellow emigres and some of whom are blonde or wear cowboy boots or whatever, and so are meant to represent native-born Americans. In superficial terms, then, this book resembles Zadie Smith's phenomenal "White Teeth," which deals with a group of Caribbean and South Asian emigres and native-born locals in a London suburb.
But Smith's novel is a masterpiece and already a classic, so it's probably not fair to make many comparisons with "Chicago," which often struggles just to get its stories told. Smith created memorable, quirky, individual characters and set them in motion to create a wholly unique series of events and experiences. Alaa Al Aswany has a journalist's instinct for sketching recognizable, culturally representative personalities, as long as they're Egyptian. So here we get the young radical (a misunderstood poet), the conniving president of a foreign students' union (who is also a religious hypocrite, a male chauvinist pig, and -- just in case you still missed the point -- a moocher with a secret bank account), a naturalized American who has deliberately rejected every shred of his Egyptian heritage and never fails to put down Egypt and all Egyptians in all his public conversations. And so on, including a young, observant Muslim woman, who has her values shaken by her encounter with American culture. Imagine that. There are others, but you can probably figure them out yourself if you've watched CNN for the last couple of years.
And these are the well-drawn characters. The problem is that there's virtually nothing surprising about any of them, so they come across more as types than as actual humans. Their predicaments are predictable, and so are their responses. By comparison, the "Americans" in the novel are stick figures. With their stock dialogue and limited responses, they seem to be there mostly to push the plots along. (I'm about halfway through the novel right now, so I'll report back when I'm finished, if anything actually changes about the whole character thing.)
Part of the disappointment of this novel doesn't reside with the author's work, however. It has apparently received the crudest, clumsiest translation I've ever encountered in a book first written in another language. At least I think that must be the problem. The prose seems wooden and childish at many points; surely the literate Egyptians who praised this novel and its predecessor didn't have to deal with the awkward locutions of the English here. (Or maybe they were so excited by the frank depictions of governmental corruption and the characters' sexy behavior that they overlooked its lack of purely literary merit?)
Some people will probably recognize themselves in the pages of "Chicago," especially if they squint. Everyone else can walk on by.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Poor translation, interesting themes
July 26 2008
By missed
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
Chicago is the first novel I've read by Alaa Al Aswany, Egypt's best-selling author, dentist and political activist. Chicago tells the tale of a number of Egyptian medical students studying in Chicago on an Egyptian government scholarship, several expatriates, and Americans. The themes are as vast as the great city: racism, prejudice, class, love, religion, politics.
Chicago's greatest strength is that it presents to the American reader a glimpse into a culture that is not only foreign to (most of) us, but on that has been distorted by the media. Aswany surprised me, particularly on two of the above themes: sex/love and politics. I never expected a novel geared towards a predominantly Muslim audience to be sexually promiscuous (with sharia consequences, of course), nor one that would so openly criticize Egypt's current despotic administration, the effects of which are displayed heavily in the novel, particularly with Nagi, an Egyptian student-poet who was once a political detainee, and General Shakir, a convincingly evil and sadistic part of the secret police machinery who takes pleasure in the human rights violations he commits. Another character of note is Shaymaa, a devout Muslim woman student who falls in love with fellow student Tafiq, and is faced with the needs of love and the conflicts in brings with her religious upbringing.
The problem with Chicago is the translation, especially during the first fifty or so pages of the novel. Much of it makes Chicago seem like amateur fiction, as if Aswany was writing a short story for a fiction workshop at some community center. The translation is clumsy and stiff, and at times I found myself wondering if I should bother finishing the book.
Ultimately, what won me over is Aswany's presentation of his own culture, particularly the way in which the predominance of Islam influences the choices the characters make, in addition to Aswany's strong and daring political views. Had the translation been better I might have given this 3.5 or 4 stars, however, once can't really escape the effects of a poor translation when considering the quality of fiction.
Chicago's greatest strength is that it presents to the American reader a glimpse into a culture that is not only foreign to (most of) us, but on that has been distorted by the media. Aswany surprised me, particularly on two of the above themes: sex/love and politics. I never expected a novel geared towards a predominantly Muslim audience to be sexually promiscuous (with sharia consequences, of course), nor one that would so openly criticize Egypt's current despotic administration, the effects of which are displayed heavily in the novel, particularly with Nagi, an Egyptian student-poet who was once a political detainee, and General Shakir, a convincingly evil and sadistic part of the secret police machinery who takes pleasure in the human rights violations he commits. Another character of note is Shaymaa, a devout Muslim woman student who falls in love with fellow student Tafiq, and is faced with the needs of love and the conflicts in brings with her religious upbringing.
The problem with Chicago is the translation, especially during the first fifty or so pages of the novel. Much of it makes Chicago seem like amateur fiction, as if Aswany was writing a short story for a fiction workshop at some community center. The translation is clumsy and stiff, and at times I found myself wondering if I should bother finishing the book.
Ultimately, what won me over is Aswany's presentation of his own culture, particularly the way in which the predominance of Islam influences the choices the characters make, in addition to Aswany's strong and daring political views. Had the translation been better I might have given this 3.5 or 4 stars, however, once can't really escape the effects of a poor translation when considering the quality of fiction.
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3.2 out of 5 stars
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