A Son of the Rock

The American University in Cairo Press, 2008, 181 p. Translated from the Arabic, Niuran sadiqa, by Humphrey Davis

I have previously read the author’s most famous novel The Yacoubian Building but this is a collection of Aswamy’s shorter works and preceded by a Preface which apart from that word and its pagination is, curiously, entirely blank.

The first and by far the longest piece here is He Who Drew Close and Saw in which the narrator, Isam, describes at length his relationships with his family – an artist father whose hopes of changing Art history have been dashed, a mother who refuses to accept the death sentence of a cancer diagnosis, her mother with whom she has developed an antipathy and who revenges herself graphically – and at his work at the government Chemicals Department where he has managed to annoy everyone, especially his boss, with his air of superiority. Along the way he reflects on love of country and its spurious nature. He affects to despise the mass of Egyptians equally and tells a German woman whom he meets at a photography exhibition that her impressions of, and so fondness for, Egypt are misguided. The ending, however, casts doubt on all that passed before, or at least on Isam’s views on it.

Izzat Amin Iskander was a schoolmate of the narrator – a schoolmate with an artificial leg and a crutch. Neverthelees he sets off on a ride on the narrator’s new bicycle.

An Old Blue Dress and A Close-fitting Covering for the Head, Brightly Coloured comprises accounts of two contrasting relationships. In the first a woman puts up with the realities of life but her partner is more cynical. In the second the narrator is beguiled by a straight-laced ‘moral’ girl.

Mme Zitta Mendès, A Last Image again has two parts. In the first the narrator recalls his visits to Tante Zitta – whom the reader soon works out is his father’s mistress. The second sees him recognise her in old age at the foreigners’ table in Groppi’s.

Dear Sister Makarim takes the form of a letter, couched in very pious terms, of a worker abroad explaining to his sister in Egypt why he cannot possibly send money back home for their mother’s medical treatment.

Games are what Mohammad el-Dawakhli, an extremely fat schoolboy, tries to avoid at all costs. The gym teacher Miss Souad tacitly accepts this. One day she is replaced by Mr Hamid, who is not so indulgent. Thereafter the story writes itself.

The Kitchen Boy. Hisham is pushed by his mother into training as a doctor. Despite good exam results and practical experience on the wards he still finds his faculty head overly critical, necessitating a change of attitude towards him.

The Society of the Faithful is the remnants of a former political grouping whose dead leader one of their number experiences speaking to him.

The Sorrows of Hagg Ahmad are due to his father dying just as Hagg is starting his predawn Ramadan meal.

A Look into Nagi’s Face is again set in a school environment. Nagi is the new boy who shines academically and eventually even refuses the teacher’s corporal punishment. What happens next isn’t what you might expect from that circumstance.

Pedant’s corner:- Translated into USian, “wasn’t one of those husbands who lay down the law” (laid down,) a missing full stop at the end of one sentence, “he would be compelled to loosened the belt of his pants” (to loosen,) “showing how both sad he is and also how he clings” (showing both how sad he is and also….)