Thebes at War

This book reads like a Young Adult novel, which might be one the reasons it is part of the curriculum for students in Egypt (per the introduction). The style was basic and the descriptions of battles was repetitive. I felt like I was reading a novelized version of an Ancient Egyptian palette. However that does not mean the book was horrible. It has its exciting moments. It is my first foray into a novel about Ancient Egypt and it helped as a springboard into understanding some history of the dynasties and periods of Egyptian history. You might find it a good introduction to Egyptian history that is not a stuffy academic text. However, as much as it is based in fact, it is not completely factual. One reason is that the whole history has not been uncovered and the other is that the book is in fact a novel. I recommend this book but, before you read it, realize that the style is not what you would expect from a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I too looked forward to reading a book ABOUT ancient Egypt written not only by an Egyptian but by a Nobel prize winner for Literature. I guess then I too must blame the translater for the stodgy dialogue and descriptions. Style also seemed old fashioned which may or may not have to do w/ it being written in the '40's. I have read non fiction reports of this era and this war because my interest was piqued by one of my very favorite Egyptian historical novels the series: The Lords of the Two Lands by Pauline Gedge which I do very much recommend to anyone for comparison with this book. Historically, no one can say if Ahmose had an affair with the king's daughter just as there are some fictional elements in Gedge's book. Historians are also not sure if Ahmose was Sequenenra's son or grandson, apparently the records are just not clear. Gedge's books ( a trilogy) DO get into the roles of the Tao women (family name of the Theban kings) Aahotep, widow of Sequenenra apparently was for a time regent and was given the Golden Flies by King Ahmose, a seldom given award for MILITARY bravery. They were buried with her and are now in a museum. The mother of Sequenenra, Tetisheri, was also apparently involved in military stategy as well as in holding the family estates while the men were at war, for her as well as Aahotep King Ahmose later erected stalae stating their valuable contributions. These facts, as well as photgraphs of Sequenenra's mummy with its 5 or more wounds to the face and head, any one of which would have been fatal, can be seen in several Egyptian history books, including Nicholas Reeves' book about Akhenaten when Reeves is laying the historical framework for the Akhenaten period. One problem I had w/ the Mahfouz' book was his emphasis on the evil Hyksos being white skinned. Actually they were Asiatics, the point of course, was he was writing during WWII and this prejudicial and biased writing was probably aimed at British and other European colonists in many non European nations at that time. Nevertheless, just as other biased racial statements made 50-60 years ago are not "forgiveable" now just because "they came from that time period" these should not be either. He over and over again emphasizes the evil of the white skinned people and the purity of the brown skinned. Ms Gedge manages to tell the same story without mentioning the minutae of skin color differences which were, as far as we know of THAT era, unimportant to them. Other than that problem, which I do understand due to the history of his country and its' situation at the time, I enjoyed reading the book from his point of view, and wish I could read it in the original to find out if the prose would be better than it seems to be.