I really enjoyed these short stories, but (greedily) wanted more resolution; like when you're eating and you feel like you're not quite full.

Easy to read, all good. Many are surrealistic and disturbing ("The Conjurer"), some are charming ("Half a Day"), some Kafkaesque ("The Man and The Other Man") and some - maybe all - show the strain of living under Egypt's dictatorship ("At The Bus Stop")

Came to this collection through "The Conjurer Made Off with the Dish," which was featured in an anthology called The Art of the Tale; though many stories are powerful in their own right ("The Ditch" "The Man and the Other Man," "A Fugitive from Justice," the title story) the structural similarities between stories became increasingly apparent over the course of the twenty-story collection; as a repertory of Mahfouz's work, it's quite astounding but as a single reading experience it can get a little tiresome

Salam. Wah klo G yang kasih rekomen, tentunya atuh buku yang oekeh punya. Wismilak with my time controling ya. Oom lagi klenger asyik nulis aja kok G. God bless you.

One of my students at IUP recommended Mahfouz to me. I have wanted to read him since he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the 1980's.

This collection of short stories are excellent. Some have an otherworldly quality to them. When I have a little more time next month, I will read his Cairo Trilogy.

A group of people, sheltering from the rain in a bus stop, are witness to a baffling series of scenes—the near-lynching of a thief, a horrific car accident, a couple making love in public atop a corpse—and cannot tell if what they are watching is real, or the shooting of a film. A man comes home to a house that he realizes is like his but isn’t and a woman who resembles his wife but is not. A man dreams of himself, in a medieval avatar, burying a mysterious box in the place that is now his home—and on a whim, digs up the place to find the box.

A young woman meets again the man who sexually abused her as a child. A man, his marriage fallen apart, goes wandering about the town, remembering the past. A little boy, sent out by his mother on an errand, abandons it after several attempts and goes off to enjoy himself…

Naguib Mahfouz’s stories in The Time and The Place and Other Stories are a varied collection. Many of them have a certain whimsicality to them, a theme that, while set firmly in 20th century Cairo (mostly), could well be straight from The Arabian Nights. Ends are invariably left hanging, for the reader to interpret (along with the rest of the story) as he or she pleases. Themes such as love (requited and not, platonic and savage, youthful and mature), lust, ambition, greed, ennui and fear play out in story after story.

What impressed me the most about these stories was the obvious evidence of a master storyteller at work: at no point did I feel bored, not once did my interest flag. Yes, there were some stories that left me wondering, “But what happened after that?”, but this was usually followed by the realization that Mahfouz was using metaphors and symbols to say something beyond the vivid tale in itself. Commenting, perhaps, on the stupidity of humans, our inability to look beyond our own petty interests, our desire for what lies beyond our reach.

That said, the stories that I especially liked in this collection were A Day for Saying Goodbye, By a Person Unknown, The Norwegian Rat and A Long-Term Plan. All the stories are good, but these ones in particular stayed with me for different reasons, ranging all the way from poignancy to humour, but all of them, in some way or the other, letting me relate to them.

These stories are Poe-like in the way they lure and haunt. The style is measured and quiet with its deceptions while the stories precisely told are shrouded in mystery. I wish I could read Arabic as I suspect the language of these tales has rhythms and sounds that would significantly contribute.

Read so far:

Zaabalawi --3
*The conjurer made off with the dish
*The answer is no
The time and the place
*Blessed night
The ditch
Half a day --3
The tavern of the black cat
The lawsuit
The empty cafe
A day for saying goodbye
*By a person unknown
The man and the other man
The wasteland
The Norwegian rat
His majesty
Fear
At the bus stop
A fugitive from justice
A long term plan

Interesting to read a different style of Mahfouz book, for perspective, but I wouldn't rate it as one of his best. Many of the stories seem to abruptly finish, which I'm sure there is a reason for, but I couldn't understand it.

The Time and the Place and Other Stories collects translations of twenty of Mahfouz' short stories from the years between 1962 and 1989. For the most part, these are not great considered as stories, with many having no real plot, but the writing is so incredible it doesn't matter. To give an example, my favorite story of the collection, "The Ditch", is a description of the life of an old man who has never married or had a family and just lives a boring life; nothing actually happens in the "story" — but the language, and the subtle personification of the man's house, are incredible. Many of the stories which do have a plot are so surreal that the reader doesn't have any idea what is going on or what will happen after the abrupt and ambiguous ending. These are stories which will not appeal to those who read for "the story" but those who read for language and style will find them among Mahfouz' best writing. The translator, Denys Johnson-Davies, also deserves credit, because this is the kind of book that could have been ruined by a poor translation.

I am not so sure as to what I read from cover to cover, much less comprehend, nevertheless somewher e out there are readers whom are astute enough to recognize whatever it was that Naguib Mahfouz conveyed via his short stories collected herein.

I read them before but this time, I am somewhat disappointed: this sounds like a very old man, not feeling up to the time he lives in - understandably, because the Egypt he knew before was extremely different. Some stories are still showing the sign of genius, but few.