Sugar Street: The Cairo Trilogy, Volume 3

Sugar Street is the title of the third book of Naquib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy. Mahfouz is an Egyptian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. He wrote over thirty novels, hundreds of short stories, and numerous plays and movie scripts. The Cairo Trilogy is his most popular work, and many people consider it his best work. It depicts the lives of three generations of families in Cairo from 1917 to 1944. Sugar Street, published in 1957, is the third book of the Trilogy, and it covers 1935 to 1944.Palace Walk and Palace of Desire reveal the times and events that have shaped the characters, and readers become invested in their lives. The family is basically old-fashioned. They are devout Muslims, but they are not fanatical. To some readers, the first two novels are a little weaker than the last because, for them, they are a little too much like a soap opera. Also, Sugar Street moves along more quickly. It closes the story of Al-Sayid Ahmad, a tyrannical patriarch who is now old and frail, and his children and their families, taking them to the mid-twentieth century, where we see the emerging of Egypt as a modern country.In Sugar Street, Mahfouz existential views are more powerful as he continues to present the three generations of a middle-class Cairo family and their experiences. They are an example of the human experience. We see how they are affected by their times and how they adapt. The family has become fragmented by events on the national level and by events within the family. The lively home that the reader saw in Palace Walk is now gloomy. The family and its members are also a reflection of a changing Egypt, a country ruled by a strong leader and by almost blind religious belief. Like the al-Jawad family, the nation is one family, yet many families, looking for a path into the future. We observe their journeys and their often unsettling confrontations with change. We see how events send one person in one direction and another person in the opposite direction.One of the techniques that Mahfouz uses is dialogue, especially the internal dialogue. The reader hears what people say and what they think but cannot say. Within the family, as well as within the nation, people do their best to maintain a façade, rarely communicating openly. At the same time, readers will hear dialogue that is a reflection of the national sentiment and socialist-like rhetoric of the times. The book takes the reader to a point just before Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in Egypt, a point where Arab nationalist rhetoric was at its peak then.One of the themes of the Trilogy is the very limited role of women outside the home. Women are treated as commodities and have difficult times, yet each generation makes advances. For example, Amina is the wife of Abd al-Jawad, the main protagonist. His death is tragic but also liberating for her. After his death, she gains a voice separate from other characters. She says the last prayers, effectively having the last word. Her inner dialogue reveals her thoughts, and she then becomes a character distinctly separate from others.As has been said, “Poetry is what’s lost in the translation.” This statement, for many critics, applies to the English translation of the Cairo Trilogy. The translation of a text is never going to reveal as much as the original nor be as aesthetically appealing. However, the Cairo Trilogy is worth reading, especially Sugar Street. Do read them in order, however. Otherwise, you will most likely lose even more than what is lost in translation.

This was the least well-done book of the trilogy. It took me a long time to formulate into words my disappointment in this work. Mahfouz had great representation of everything that has happened in the recent history of Egypt, at the time when everything changed, with one family having a communist, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, *and* a man who advances up the ladder of increasing bureaucracy. Mahfouz continues to write vividly, with extremely real characters, that you believe, and that you are present with, within their heads. But the veiled references to homosexuality were unnecessary and distracting from the plot. And the book was too slice of life. The ending was far too sudden, incomplete, and unfulfilling. And in the end, this book, and this trilogy, becomes a writing of depression, sadness, and how lives are destroyed, lacking in hope, lacking in joy, lacking in truth.One man, on patriarch, sets his family down the road of despair through his relentless despotism. He even warps their brains into thinking that what he does is a good thing, and his hypocrisy a virtue. This could be a great book in teaching the lesson of how we choose generational sins for our family- but it doesn't seem to actually try to teach this. This is the result of the work of the patriarch, but there is no foil to present for hope for the family. The only successful individual is the grandchild engaged in homosexuality who succeeds at bureaucracy. There is no redemption. The book becomes the anti-Dickens, a world without possibilities. And this is the greatest value of the book, perhaps- showing us the Egyptian culture, strangling it's citizens in red tape. Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)

This is the third book in the Cairo Trilogy Series. By all means, do NOT try to read this book without having read Palace Walk or Palace of Desire FIRST--it would be like tuning in to a movie in the last half hour.This book opens with the father and his wife in old age, in their 60's, their children in middle age, and the younger (third) generation entering their 20's. It continues the interesting saga. The book finishes shortly after both the father and his wife eventually die of old age.This entire series is SLOW DRAMA (warning for those who like "action"), but one of the BEST pieces of literature I have ever read in my life. I have lived in the Middle East for 11 years, and this entire series REALLY shows the Middle Eastern culture and way of thinking.

Very vivid account of 3 generations family life in Cairo going through life’s joys and tragedies within the political setting of Egypt, fascinating and captivating.

Just as great as the first volume of the trilogy. It has a somewhat unexpected ending, but it leaves you with a feeling of wanting to read more. Throughout the trilogy I felt I was in a soap opera, but at the same type a good one. It also felt a bit like a scientist/psychologist closely monitoring the actions and reactions of the characters. A very interesting reading experience.

Still reading this, the 3rd of The Cairo Trilogy. Although still very intriguing, the political sections were not for me.

The Cairo Triloby ought to be of interest to anyone interested in understanding Egypt better and Sugar Street, the third volume, which I have not yet read, would seem in some ways to be the most essential of the books. It arrived in very good condition in very good time, which I appreciate greatly.

Filled with emotions, contradictions, wisdoms, and full with precise depictions of human lives. It is a triumph of the human spirits that is just amazing.

Last book of Mahfouz's 'Cairo Trilogy': this opens some eight years after the cliffhanger end of book 2. Events have taken their toll and the former fearsome patriarch Al-Sayid Ahmad is now a frail elderly man; while his wife now goes out daily, it is her husband who finds himself confined, 'sitting on the balcony...peering out between the spindles.'This novel focuses on the younger generations: Kamal, a schoolteacher and intellectual, unable to make up his mind to marry - yet craving something more from life: ' "I'm certain that I'm miserable, despite having created a life that assures me both intellectual pleasures and bodily delights." 'Ahmad's grandsons too are interested in politics - one a communist, one a member of the Muslim brotherhood - and politics occupies a great deal of the story. Although the author tries to clarify the events, I found this went on a bit.I've loved reading this trilogy, which immerses you in the Middle East of yesteryear; the family came to life -( well, maybe not the grandchildren so much) - and I would recommend it.

Mahfouz was the first Arab author to win the Novel Prize for literature - and deservedly so.The Cairo Trilogy is a wonderfully rich story that explores the growth and development of a single Cairo family through troubled times in Egypt.In these troubled times of our own we need to understand our Muslim friends properly and these three classic contemporary novels go far to do just that.If that were not enough, they are GREAT novels - poignant, moving, funny and full of rich historical detail.You should not consider yourself well read until you have read all three of these wonderful novels.

Brings Egyptian social and political life from late 19C to mid-WW2. Poignant. Political and philosophical aspects might falter in the translation, but the intent is clear: there is not one Egypt, there is not one Islam and Muslim vary. What is equally clear is that minority groups also vary in their acceptability above the parapet or dismisal well below it. Social mores among the classes is totally alien to Western thinking, perhaps being a clear century or more behind or further. Altogether, well worth ploughing through. There is an impression of characters being composites of those well-known to the author.

Enjoyable and informative read

Good!