Slight review of the Midaq Alley:
I'm mainly writing this post bc I had a rather unsatisfying discussion about it in this new book club I'm attending, and if anyone knows the book and would like to offer some insights I'm all ears.
So, I found the book very hard to read because most of the characters treat each other horribly, and think about each other even worse.
There is the coffee house owner, who screams at his wife all the time, their son who is disgusted by their poverty but feels superior bc he's in the army, the bakeress who hits her husband, the single mother who disdains her friend and landlord, the illegal dentist who liles to cause pain, the girl that can only think about materialistic wealth etc. etc.
Every single one seems to be unable of seeing a situation from anyone else's perspective, and their actions often seem very alien to me.
A lot of that is explained by the cultural difference, of course - I think I don't have a particular good understanding of the socioeconomic situation in late 40s Cairo, and knowing that makes expressing my thoughts difficult.
But sometimes it seems that Machfus just wrote a book about a bunch of people he really did not like at all.
