The Thief and the Dogs

First published in Egypt during the sixties, another great novella from Naguib Mahfouz, this one a riveting page turner narrated as a streaming flow of consciousness from a criminal mind. The story opens with Said Mahran, just released after years in prison, burning up with hatred and obsessed with the idea of revenge on his ex-wife Nabawiyya and her new husband and his old friend Ilish. When he sees the success of one of his old cronies, Rauf Ilwan, he hates him too and desires vengeance. He seems driven by circumstance, yet later when he is given opportunities to change, he does not take them, knows only how to be a thief and nothing else. He is unable to change, blaming everyone except himself for his problems and soon seeks out "Tarzan" and his sleazy club out in the dark of the desert, drawn back into the criminal underworld. A psychological study of someone bent on self-destruction.

This novel, by one of the world's premier fiction writers (Nobel Prize, 1988), is an interesting combination of Western and Middle-Eastern traditions. The prose style is a mixture of Camus' "The Stranger", Hesse's "Siddartha", and Graham Greene's "A Burnt-Out Case". There is a hard-boiled aspect that reminds the reader of Graham Greene's best "entertainments" and a philosophical strand similar to the French existentialists. Mix in a little Sufist wisdom and Egyptian scenery, and you've got a rather interesting literary mixture.I advise any fan of world literature to give it a try. It's short and fast-paced, so the time investment will only be a day or two.

In The Thief and the Dogs; Naguib Mahfouz explores some of the disappointments in the failure of the revolution to bring real change. His characters live in a world rich in emotional and political colour. Anyone can identify with their dilemmas, their passions and their frustrations. The Thief and the Dogs deals with the experience of Said Mahran, a burglar and smalltime political activist who goes to jail before the revolution in 1952 and emerges four years later to find the world he used to know has completely changed. Both in personal and political terms Said feels betrayed: his wife has married his old sidekick Ilish, and his former political mentor Ra'uf has given up his student radicalism for a comfortable job with a newspaper.

This is the story of a man who had stolen for the Revolution. Released from jail in post-revolutionary times, he continues to blame society for his ills, reverting to his old, thieving habits, and brings himself to self destruction. A fascinating, but not a very likeable, character.

In the Thief and the dogs, Mahfouz casts a new light on the human experience! He talks of man's ongoing struggle to achieve what his heart wishes despite society's obstacles. Set in 1945 ,Egypt, it is the story of a man who is driven by society to become a thief--an unjust society that denies him redemption when his dark heart is finally lit by love!