Cairo Trilogy - 1. Palace Walk - Naguib Mahfouz

By Naguib Mahfouz


I picked it up a few years ago but somehow it didn't work then. Then recently saw it in the lending-sharing red library at the cafe - the whole set. Refrained from picking it up. But the desire to read and then that it is a nobel prize winner, led me to eventually download the book.

And this time, quite enticed. Already a few chapters deep. Perhaps to understand this, I have to first list all my current readings - esp the family books. And hopefully I'll write about each of them. I am currently at different bookmarks on The Makioka Sisters, The Brothers Karamazov, Buddenbrooks, The Glassblowers and a few others but these are the mainly family sagas of sorts. I tend to read many books at a time, and I like the approach. I like it that one is about 1930s Japan, another about 1800s Germany, the other about Russia and one about France during the late 1700s. I desire to add more but that in this backdrop I like seeing the various families and the customs of their times and place.

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Come to think of it, any of us could have been granted life in any of the time-space. That we were born where we were and are in times that we are in is a random chance. The world is full of unique lives, completely independent in their thought, their context, their choices, their world view and their attitude but dependent on their immediately radiating world for nature and nurture. That we can read and access these many different lives and times is a huge privilege I believe. If anything, it should make us appreciative of different contexts, different point of views and that what is the 'done' thing changes place to place, time to time, the truth too that way is contextual. So any generic or general standards of life are simply shortcuts, placeholders of thinking. Something that we have to teach ourselves - to 'see well'. To see things for what they are rather than judging them on some arbitrary generic standard. That the world arrives at best practices, and standards over time, is understood, but when it is not directly about law and order that makes the world a liveable place, I think the rest of us not directly involved can at least appreciate the things for what they are and try to see that way. This is as much a note to self, a reminder to learn to see well. 

This leads to further discussion. I picked it up with AI and it led me to a wonderful reading list shared elsewhere. One of them is Michael Oakeshott. My notes from elsewhere.

There is disparity in the way the people see themselves and the way policymakers see the world. Sometimes external standards are brought up on people without appreciating the people's way of being. But at the same time, policy makers have little time and big goals, so they bring standards and goals ... perhaps my seeing is partial in that way. But sometimes reading the fiction, it seems people are happy in their own way, and many a times, external standards make them compare to some norm which casts them as an unhappy or backward lot. I understand the imperative of the government. But where does appreciation of things as such sits? Or as a human being one is always morally staked, has to do something if sees some inequality, disadvantage - or should one first try to stop and appreciate the situation? I guess it is difficult to arrive at an objective answer. But what I am looking for is dispassionate thought-writing which is not driven by moral imperatives but can address the issues I face in my thinking about appreciation of what is, before pulling in or driving what should be.

In these instances, when one has not read around the subject much or is not close to a teacher or a mentor, chatgpt can be helpful. It suggests I look at Michael Oakeshott, Simon Weil, John Berger, Ivan Illich, Marilynne Robinson, Claude-Levi Strauss. It also suggests helpfully to keep a double notebook - of the world as it is, and the world that could be. It further helped me extend the list by adding Rilke, Dillard, Merton, Camus, Murdoch, Wendell Berry and many more - individual essays. Part of my reason of this blog is to keep a track of these readings - if I get around to them, what they incite in me, and what questions or thoughts do I have for them. 

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Back to Cairo Trilogy - it has been translated from Arabic. I need to read a little more before I can say further. But so far enjoying the introduction to the family.

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Later - I left the book a little later. Somehow there is a sensibility of looking at the world that either matches with your frequency broadly, or jars with it too much, too much of anti-wavelength at times. To an extent one can handle it, but I guess this one will be put away like the Buru Quartet from Indonesia. Too much of the female objectification makes it a tough read, it just seems written for male readers then. Some other time perhaps. (I quite enjoyed the set-up chapters. May overcome the jarring aspects sometime in the future).