Fountain and Tomb [a novel] (English and Arabic Edition)

The entire freshman class at a Richmond Governor's school was required to read this book. Don't get me wrong, it is a WONDERFUL book with all of its vignettes and how they all paint a picture of an alley being like a family. It is just so confusing in some points. Some stories are pointless and don't add to the overall story. You never find out the narrator's name. Sometimes the narrator is telling the stories as a child, or as an adult look back on childhood, and it jumps around these two views quite often. Other than the slight confusing, this book is a great quick read and can be interpreted in quite a few different ways. I reccommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading at all.

Somehow my previous review of this book has been dropped. This was my introduction to Mahfouz; I understand why he is a Nobel Prize winner. The books uses a number of short vignettes to describe the neighbor over the lifetime of the narrator. Through these vignettes one sees the changing world of the neighbor - from governed by a thug-king to something resembling faith in Egytian government passing through the overthrow of the British rule. The changing world is also reflected in schooling, in women working, in the partial overthrow of superstition, etc. Each vignette is so perfect and the total effect of them makes this a book you should not miss.

When I was a freshman at the University of Richmond, Naguib Mahfouz's Fountain and Tomb was one of the books all first year English classes were required to read. I must confess, as a typical student, I had little desire to read the aforementioned text; however, from the moment I read the first paragraph, I was hooked. Rarely have I ever discovered such pure joy in prose. Each word, each sentence created so detailed a picture of a world which delighted me and, by the conclusion of the piece, I longed for more. Mahfouz has painted with words a beautiful, mystical portrait in the Fountain and Tomb and I highly recomend this book to anyone who has even the slightest passing interest in Egypt.