Adrift on the Nile

Intellectuals gather every evening on a boat for drug and sex parties. One of them writes a play with the members of the group as main characters. Their common attitude: flight for reality, nihilism and defeatism. The fervour after the Nasser revolution is gone: "Revolutions are planned by cunning foxes, fought by the brave and won by the cowards." But ultimately they are confronted with reality when one of them kills a person in a car accident and flees. Will the name of the culprit be revealed to the police? The group falls apart. Mahfouz punches Samuel Beckett and his 'theatre of the absurd' K.O. when he cleverly remarks that Beckett filed a complaint against an editor who failed to fulfil his contract. His plays may be absurd, but not the royalties. It was all just a pose. Indeed, more a book for Egyptian readers, but also with a universal theme: don't shun your responsibilities. Highly recommended.

Winning the Nobel Prize for literature (in 1988) certainly didn't hurt him any, andnow Naguib Mahfouz has become a house-hold name (for the literati, at least). Whenone reads a Prize-winner, one expects substance and style, and Mahfouz, if histranslators are honest, certainly seems worthy of the Swedish honor. In "Adrift on theNile," nihilism is the word, as a group of like minded intellectuals gather nightly on ahouseboat moored on the famous river where they question anything that can bequestioned--"but no answers," they claim. "There are never any answers," as they callinto account any topic brought up. It is a "din in iniquity," for sure, as good Egyptiankif (and a well-stoked pipe) help to bring out their curiousity cum intellect. That is,until, toward the end of this short novel, the group takes a ride out into the desertwhere a disaster happens. It's Jay Gatsby, final chapter, of course.Mahfouz is compared to Proust, Camus, Salinger, and an introspective Hemingway,and justifiably so. Hailed as the "widest-read Arab writer currently published in theU.S.," Mahfouz has certainly wielded his own influence among international readerssince the '88 Prize; alas, it seems it took the impact of this award for his books toachieve their circulation, but that doesn't diminish his themes, his philosophies, hisimpact on both socially significant issues and modern literature."Adrift on the Nile" reads fast and it is short; yet it packs a punch that seems to scoreto the very soul. The houseboat literally becomes a ship of fools, adrift on theSargasso Sea, headed into the Bermuda triangle. Existentialists will love this one.([email protected])

I truly enjoyed this book. I'd actually rate it 8.5 on the 1-10 scale. The passion and readability of Adrift on the Nile led me to other works of Mafouz, all of which provide the unique entertainment experience that comes only from a mesmerizing novel . Being such a short book, Adrift on the Nile is impossible to put down once started