This book packs a lot of short stories into a short book. I liked the chance to see what life was like in 20th century Cairo, and how similar and how very different it was from modern-day America. Although wonderfully written, this book is a mixed bag. The best of the stories are tightly woven and suspenseful and pack a punch in just a few pages; some of them are dreamlike and Kafkaesque; a few are pretty lame. In this case the book's brevity was an advantage. It politely ended just as I got tired of reading it.

Learning about Egyptian culture through these short stories, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies is to have a sample of different strata of Cairene life. Perhaps my favorite was the story, rather, more parable than story, called "The Wasteland" in which a man is forced to give up his wife to follow a leader; his plans for revenge are thwarted -- "why is it that all beings disappear and nothing is left but dust?" It makes you think about the expression, "another time". But time does not come again. Which road do you pick, after facing degradation? The one where you will not be seen, through the Wasteland.

Sedang membaca, versi terjemahannya dalam bahasa Indonesia, disini judulnya adalah Zahiya (Kafe yang Kosong), hasil bongkar2 dari attic, malah ketemu dengan buku yang sudah lama terlupakan, lupa sudah pernah baca atau belum, yg ada cuma tanda tangan saya saja menandakan bahwa saya yang membelinya.

this is a really, odd book of short stories. it’s never overt in any theme so you’ve really got to scry to get past messages that may come with a region’s themes rather than with an author’s. i’m conflicted to give this a higher score because the translation likely doesn’t do favors for mahfouz and his writing, but i certainly won’t rate it lower because the ideas within these stories feel fresh despite being both so simple and old.

I wanted to read this collection of 20-30 years of stories because I'd only ever read "Zabalawi" by Mahfouz, and without context, I found that story kind of unresolved. I think in the process I learned that Zabalawi's mystifications are the context for themselves and much of this book, and that probably short stories are not Mahfouz's prime vehicle; if I had a year, I'd read the Cairo Trilogy and probably know what I wanted to know. But instead, I read a collection with a lot of parables, mostly about the relationship between modernity and faith, a lot of them interested rather grandly in Egypt's future and it's relationship to Islam, all interesting subjects but maybe not foremost literary subjects. Really, there are a lot of gauzy parables here about unnamed people facing faceless judges, etc, but without the reality of Kafka's judges and it's a little tiresome. Very few stories have fully developed plots or characters-- there's a longish one about a small "family" living at the edges of Cairo during the peak years of WW2 that is memorable, but then the story is almost all driven by outside actors. There are a couples sharp satires which were enjoyable. There are some interesting elements here, but this probably shouldn't be read as a collection?

Amazing. These short stories are utterly un-western. They take place in Egypt, and the perpectives on narrative are very different. Emphasis can often be on the context, the continuity of life, themes of man's place in the universe, etc, all of this above the actual narrative. A story about a crime investigation focuses more on the investigator's life and thoughts than the actual crime. Disorienting. Read this.

Read "The Answer Is No" in the textbook for my Literary Heritage class. Loved that the main character stood her ground even though she was still affected after being sexually assaulted at 14. Wish I could find out what happened next but alas the abrupt ending was part of the reason this short story was good.

It's a beautifully written book no doubt and Mahfouz is truly a gem of an author... But this one was too Kafkaesque for my liking... Going to read more of his books to go through the style of his writing in depth!

Mahfouz has otherwise been consistently good, not sure why this collection of short stories didn't work for me. Read about half of them.

A complex arrangement of short stories, examining age, death, injustice, desire and entitlement. A solid read but perhaps not a sublime one.