Writers seldom cause revolutions, especially novelists. Even the greatest and most visionary political authors – Solzhenitsyn, Orwell and Hugo – were bound to the task of reflecting a society in turmoil. But, in doing so, fiction can have a more profound impact than the frenzied efforts of photographers and news editors to explain violent political movement. Disparate sweeps of disaffection can take clear form in the mind of a skilled novelist, and change can be presented beyond the myopia of newsreel.
Ben Macintyre has found the novel that charts the character of the Egyptian dissenters. The Yacoubian Building was written by Alaa Al Aswany, a Cairo dentist, in 2002. It is a story of power, pessimism and resentment, and how they build towards violence. Macintyre writes (£):
‘To many of us, the scenes from Cairo seem confusing, at once uplifting and unsettling. The revolution, if that is what it turns out to be, appears leaderless, its aims fluid and contradictory. Western reaction to it is deeply uncertain, but to understand the raw fury on Cairo’s streets there is no better starting point than The Yacoubian Building. First published in Arabic in 2002, it is a scathing indictment of modern Egypt’s oppressive political system, deep-grained corruption and social dislocation. Through the entwined stories of the people living in a single, fading Art Deco apartment block in central Cairo, Al-Aswany offers a microcosm of Egypt itself: a world of ruthless profiteering and political repression, of police brutality, domestic violence, Islamic extremism and sexual manipulation. This is an Egypt that has failed to live up to its expectations, where qualifications and skills count for little unless backed by bribery or influence, dominated by an all-powerful single party, the fictional “Patriotic Party”, immediately identifiable as Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party. The atmosphere of cynical manipulation is summed up by the novel’s political fixer who declares: “The Egyptians are the easiest people in the world to rule. The moment you take power, they submit to you and grovel to you and you can do what you want with them.” As a definition of what the crowds in Tahrir Square are fighting, this could hardly be more precise.’
Drop behind the paywall if you can and read the piece in its entirety.
Comments