Yacoubian Building: the modern plagues of Egypt
I was late in writing about this novel, this new miracle in the history of Egypt's literature but too late is better than never.... The Yacoubian Building is a novel by the famous, respected and highest selling writer in the last decade in Egypt... Alaa el Aswany.
As you see in the title, the novel talked about the plagues of Egypt but not the plagues of Old Egypt... The novel was discussing the Egyptian daily life... looking via a very insightful eye in the daily life of Egyptians and showing why did Egypt loose its development after the revolution of 1952 instead of becoming a large country as every one dreamed.
The novel sold 13 Editions! and was turned into a movie which in turn was a major hit in the Egyptian box office achieving more than 20 million Egyptian pounds and remaining in number one all over the summer season beating despite the large number of movies that competed for the season and varied between action and comedy..... the movie is the first one of its type ( talking about Egyptian life and mainly is of Drama type) to beat action and comedy movies allover the last 30 years in Egypt.
Response to the novel was dramatic and it made the talented writer el Aswany the best selling Egyptian novelist in the last decade and the novel remains one of the highest selling allover the Egyptian history..... it was really a miracle.
the picture to the left is the preface of the Egyptian edition published by Madbouly library (Talaa't Harb Square) in 2002 and the poster of the Major hit movie based on the novel and carrying the same name, the cast was of very important Actors like Adel Emam, Yousra, Nour el Sherif , Hind Sabry, Esaad Younes, Ahmed Bedair , Ahmed Rateb and Khaled el Sawy
if you don't want to read the long article I wrote... this video (the movie trailer translated to English) and others related videos in the same you tube page can tell all of the story .... also it is a chance to see the level of Egypt's cinema :)
The novel is about a building, A real building in downtown Cairo (34th Talaat Harb Street).... this building was built early in the last century by an Italian engineer for an Armenian rich man called Hagoub Yacoubian so the building carried his name.
the new building was very fancy and hence it was a place for rich people's resident... only ministers and very rich people lived there but after the revolution, most of the foreigners who used to live in the former kingdom left along with all Jews including the rich ones and of course the royal family and most of the rich families escaped
a new rich class was newly formed and a new life style also was conducted as this new class was mainly formed of police officers who helped with the revolution and they weren't as educated like the former rich and high social class, simply we had a rich but not a high social class
the laundry rooms above the building was rented for very poor people and so the building became a site for a very strange view, where very rich and very poor people lived together in the same place..... and by the way up till now there is nothing of imagination as this is totally an Egyptian fact!
From this base Alaa el Aswany started his novel about the inhabitant of this building and their lives, their corruption and their evil faces, their ignorance and their large problems yet also he showed the goodness and hope in the novel
he wrote about the problems of Egypt from the prospect of these people's life, considering this closed community as an example of Egypt
Alaa wrote about the unspeakable problems very bravely and very simply.... he wrote about corruption in every field especially in Egyptian political apparatus even criticizing the Egyptian president himself.... he also wrote about social problems and even about the Gay issue. such a large variety of problems that made his novel really unique.
Main Characters of the novel:
Kamal "Bey" el Desoky: a very well educated man from a very rich family that lost most of its fortune after the revolution, he refused to leave Egypt and remained in the same apartment where he lived. he had an office of engineering counseling in Yacoubian building, never married until he got sixty years old and in steed he lived his life in so many affairs and never fallen in love, his office was nothing but a place to meet his mistresses. in the end of the novel, he meets a young lady " Buthayna el Sayed" and fall in love with her and although there is very large age difference yet she also fall for him, they both get married after his sister Dawlat takes over his apartment and makes him so much legal troubles.
Taha el Shazli: the gander's son who works very hard to be a policeman, he gets very high degrees in high school and apply for police academy. although he is very talented both physically and mentally, yet his application to police academy gets refused because his father is the Gander.... and he didn't have money to buy the committee which charges 20,000 LE!!
he becomes devastated and depressed although he got accepted to Economy and political science school in Cairo university where he gets introduced to several religious friends who recruit him to one of Jihad terroristic groups, he looses his first love (Buthayna el Sayed) and gets arrested by state security " Amn El DAwla" where he gets tortured and raped!!! he insists on getting revenge and tries to kill the officer who was in charge of his torture,... indeed he kills him but also he looses his life in the same incident!!!
Buthayna el Sayed: one of the inhabitants of the roof, he father dies and her mother asks her to work to pay for her little brothers and sisters' living... she gets lots of sexual harressment in her work and leaves several jobs, yet to her amazement, her mother refuses her excuses and asks her to work although she knows that the employer expects sexual favors from her daughter
so she surrenders and works because she needed money and looses hopes she had mad before with her first love since childhood Taha el Shazli who became very religious...
A Christian neighbor in the roof " Malak Khella" finds her a job in Kamal "Bey" el Desoky's office so that she could help him to take over his apartment but she falls in love with Kamal and marries him eventually
Malak Khella: A shirt maker and one of the inhabitants of the roof, he is the brother of Abskharon , a worker in Kamal "Bey" el Desoky's office together they try to take over the office apartment but their plans fall as Buthayna refuses to go on with their dirty game.
Hatim Rasheed: (the most controversial) a very talented journalist who is Gay.... he is the son of a very important law professor and a French mother who didn't get along in their marriage and always left him lonely while he was a child.
he falls in love with Edrees the Nubian servant and together they have a long relationship that started when Hatim was just a 9 years old kid.
Hatim is very successful in his job and he becomes the Editor in chief in le Caire weekly magazine which is French speaking.... he tries to find love and searches for men who look like his old missed love Edrees so he loves a recruit of the security that stands in the street (Cairo city streets are full of state security recruits to keep watching the public!!) ,the recruit is just Hatim's type, his name is Abd Rabbou
together they have log relationship until Abd Rabbou's son Dies and he considers this god punishment for his homosexual affair so he deserts Hatim and go a way with his wife, Hatim tries to get him back so they quarrel then fight.... Abd Rabbou kills Hatim in the end!
Hagg Muhammad Azzam: originally from rural area and moved to Cairo, he worked as a show sweeper for a while then disappears several years to return as one of the wealthiest people allover the state!!!
most of his fortune comes from drug dealing, he candidate for the people's assembly and so he pays Kamal el Fooly one million Dollar for his support.
after winning the election in a very strong battle against his competition he wins a very large deal with Japanese car producers and the government (represented by Kamal el Fooly and the so called Big Boss (You can guess who he is!!) ) ask him for a big share but he refuses
so the (Big Boss) threatens him about his dirty work in drug dealing and so he co operates!
after getting old, he finds out that he is still sexually strong so he marries So'ad after several agreements including that she never gets pregnant as he fears his first wife's revenge.... an agreement that Soad doesn't follow and gets pregnant and refuses to do abortion so he pays some doctors for a Criminal abortion which takes place..... then he divorces her!!!
Sheikh el Samman: is Hagg Muhammad Azzam's best friend... he gets paid by the wealthy friend and tries to convince his secong wife that Islam accepts abortion but she never listens to his dirty advice!!
he also declares that it is totally accepted by Islam that Egypt goes to war next to America against Iraq to free Kuwait in the first gulf war
Dawlat el Desoky: Kamal's sister, who lives a very bad elderly after he husband dies and both of her children refuse to live in Egypt and Migrate, so she turns totally inhuman and after living with her brother she takes over his apartment and pays some police officers to break the law in order to catch him in bed with his lover " Buthyna" to take over his office also ..
Kamal el Fooly : (also cause so much controversy because the name of the character and its behavior is exactly the same as a famous Egyptian parliment member from the ruling party called Kamal El Shazly who remains one of the major symbols of corruption in Egyptian history or I can say the most aparrent sign of political corruption in Egypt since EVER!!")
exactly like the real character, Kamal el Fooly is very intelligent man who changes his opinion continuously according to the circumstances, so he becomes very loyal member in the Socialist party during Nasser's ruling then a very important member in the Middle party during Sadat's time and at last a very important member in the deomcratic party led by Mubarak which is mainly capitalist!!!!
he get large amount of money from dirty political deals, mainly from changing the real results of elections and gets paid 1million $ from Azzam to help him win the election, he is very strong insider in the political secrets and he could remove several minsters from their places due to scandals ..
he is one of Mubarak's important assistants and he gives Mubarak (the Big Boss) his share from every dirty deal....
and that exactly is what Kamal el Shazly used to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christine: one of the remaining foreigners after the revolution, she had an affair with Kamal but then turned to be his best friend of all time, she owns a par and sings there
Brian Whitaker wrote in the" unspeakable love " that when the translator asked el Aswany about certain expression in his novel about Hatim Rasheed as he wrote that Hatem looked very nice except for the sad apathetic look in his face which is a common feature in Gays!!! ... the translator thought that this is anti gay expression for western readers
So Alaa answered, I didn't mean that, I wanted to explain to every one in my novel that nobody is the problem of Egypt, not the Muslim nor the Christian nor the straight nor the gay alone
I wanted to explain that we are all the problem of Egypt..... that our way of thinking and the problem every one of us contributed to is the main problem of Egypt.... we are all the reason why our country remained undeveloped till now
although western readers may think of the expression as anti gay my own opinion ( as Ramy) is that this is the best novel that included gay life since Zokak El Madk of Nagib Mahfouz
so was the opinion of Brian Whitaker
Thank you Alaa for your amazing novel about Egypt... I'm sure this novel helped to wake up some people.... but the most important is that it was the sign of a new star that emerged in the sky of Egypt's literature and history
Alaa el Aswani......
you can always get more info and link about articles :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yacoubian_Building
As you see in the title, the novel talked about the plagues of Egypt but not the plagues of Old Egypt... The novel was discussing the Egyptian daily life... looking via a very insightful eye in the daily life of Egyptians and showing why did Egypt loose its development after the revolution of 1952 instead of becoming a large country as every one dreamed.
The novel sold 13 Editions! and was turned into a movie which in turn was a major hit in the Egyptian box office achieving more than 20 million Egyptian pounds and remaining in number one all over the summer season beating despite the large number of movies that competed for the season and varied between action and comedy..... the movie is the first one of its type ( talking about Egyptian life and mainly is of Drama type) to beat action and comedy movies allover the last 30 years in Egypt.
Response to the novel was dramatic and it made the talented writer el Aswany the best selling Egyptian novelist in the last decade and the novel remains one of the highest selling allover the Egyptian history..... it was really a miracle.
the picture to the left is the preface of the Egyptian edition published by Madbouly library (Talaa't Harb Square) in 2002 and the poster of the Major hit movie based on the novel and carrying the same name, the cast was of very important Actors like Adel Emam, Yousra, Nour el Sherif , Hind Sabry, Esaad Younes, Ahmed Bedair , Ahmed Rateb and Khaled el Sawy
Click to viewif you don't want to read the long article I wrote... this video (the movie trailer translated to English) and others related videos in the same you tube page can tell all of the story .... also it is a chance to see the level of Egypt's cinema :)
The novel is about a building, A real building in downtown Cairo (34th Talaat Harb Street).... this building was built early in the last century by an Italian engineer for an Armenian rich man called Hagoub Yacoubian so the building carried his name.
the new building was very fancy and hence it was a place for rich people's resident... only ministers and very rich people lived there but after the revolution, most of the foreigners who used to live in the former kingdom left along with all Jews including the rich ones and of course the royal family and most of the rich families escaped
a new rich class was newly formed and a new life style also was conducted as this new class was mainly formed of police officers who helped with the revolution and they weren't as educated like the former rich and high social class, simply we had a rich but not a high social class
the laundry rooms above the building was rented for very poor people and so the building became a site for a very strange view, where very rich and very poor people lived together in the same place..... and by the way up till now there is nothing of imagination as this is totally an Egyptian fact!
From this base Alaa el Aswany started his novel about the inhabitant of this building and their lives, their corruption and their evil faces, their ignorance and their large problems yet also he showed the goodness and hope in the novel
he wrote about the problems of Egypt from the prospect of these people's life, considering this closed community as an example of Egypt
Alaa wrote about the unspeakable problems very bravely and very simply.... he wrote about corruption in every field especially in Egyptian political apparatus even criticizing the Egyptian president himself.... he also wrote about social problems and even about the Gay issue. such a large variety of problems that made his novel really unique.
Main Characters of the novel:
Kamal "Bey" el Desoky: a very well educated man from a very rich family that lost most of its fortune after the revolution, he refused to leave Egypt and remained in the same apartment where he lived. he had an office of engineering counseling in Yacoubian building, never married until he got sixty years old and in steed he lived his life in so many affairs and never fallen in love, his office was nothing but a place to meet his mistresses. in the end of the novel, he meets a young lady " Buthayna el Sayed" and fall in love with her and although there is very large age difference yet she also fall for him, they both get married after his sister Dawlat takes over his apartment and makes him so much legal troubles.
Taha el Shazli: the gander's son who works very hard to be a policeman, he gets very high degrees in high school and apply for police academy. although he is very talented both physically and mentally, yet his application to police academy gets refused because his father is the Gander.... and he didn't have money to buy the committee which charges 20,000 LE!!
he becomes devastated and depressed although he got accepted to Economy and political science school in Cairo university where he gets introduced to several religious friends who recruit him to one of Jihad terroristic groups, he looses his first love (Buthayna el Sayed) and gets arrested by state security " Amn El DAwla" where he gets tortured and raped!!! he insists on getting revenge and tries to kill the officer who was in charge of his torture,... indeed he kills him but also he looses his life in the same incident!!!
Buthayna el Sayed: one of the inhabitants of the roof, he father dies and her mother asks her to work to pay for her little brothers and sisters' living... she gets lots of sexual harressment in her work and leaves several jobs, yet to her amazement, her mother refuses her excuses and asks her to work although she knows that the employer expects sexual favors from her daughter
so she surrenders and works because she needed money and looses hopes she had mad before with her first love since childhood Taha el Shazli who became very religious...
A Christian neighbor in the roof " Malak Khella" finds her a job in Kamal "Bey" el Desoky's office so that she could help him to take over his apartment but she falls in love with Kamal and marries him eventually
Malak Khella: A shirt maker and one of the inhabitants of the roof, he is the brother of Abskharon , a worker in Kamal "Bey" el Desoky's office together they try to take over the office apartment but their plans fall as Buthayna refuses to go on with their dirty game.
Hatim Rasheed: (the most controversial) a very talented journalist who is Gay.... he is the son of a very important law professor and a French mother who didn't get along in their marriage and always left him lonely while he was a child.
he falls in love with Edrees the Nubian servant and together they have a long relationship that started when Hatim was just a 9 years old kid.
Hatim is very successful in his job and he becomes the Editor in chief in le Caire weekly magazine which is French speaking.... he tries to find love and searches for men who look like his old missed love Edrees so he loves a recruit of the security that stands in the street (Cairo city streets are full of state security recruits to keep watching the public!!) ,the recruit is just Hatim's type, his name is Abd Rabbou
together they have log relationship until Abd Rabbou's son Dies and he considers this god punishment for his homosexual affair so he deserts Hatim and go a way with his wife, Hatim tries to get him back so they quarrel then fight.... Abd Rabbou kills Hatim in the end!
Hagg Muhammad Azzam: originally from rural area and moved to Cairo, he worked as a show sweeper for a while then disappears several years to return as one of the wealthiest people allover the state!!!
most of his fortune comes from drug dealing, he candidate for the people's assembly and so he pays Kamal el Fooly one million Dollar for his support.
after winning the election in a very strong battle against his competition he wins a very large deal with Japanese car producers and the government (represented by Kamal el Fooly and the so called Big Boss (You can guess who he is!!) ) ask him for a big share but he refuses
so the (Big Boss) threatens him about his dirty work in drug dealing and so he co operates!
after getting old, he finds out that he is still sexually strong so he marries So'ad after several agreements including that she never gets pregnant as he fears his first wife's revenge.... an agreement that Soad doesn't follow and gets pregnant and refuses to do abortion so he pays some doctors for a Criminal abortion which takes place..... then he divorces her!!!
Sheikh el Samman: is Hagg Muhammad Azzam's best friend... he gets paid by the wealthy friend and tries to convince his secong wife that Islam accepts abortion but she never listens to his dirty advice!!
he also declares that it is totally accepted by Islam that Egypt goes to war next to America against Iraq to free Kuwait in the first gulf war
Dawlat el Desoky: Kamal's sister, who lives a very bad elderly after he husband dies and both of her children refuse to live in Egypt and Migrate, so she turns totally inhuman and after living with her brother she takes over his apartment and pays some police officers to break the law in order to catch him in bed with his lover " Buthyna" to take over his office also ..
Kamal el Fooly : (also cause so much controversy because the name of the character and its behavior is exactly the same as a famous Egyptian parliment member from the ruling party called Kamal El Shazly who remains one of the major symbols of corruption in Egyptian history or I can say the most aparrent sign of political corruption in Egypt since EVER!!")
exactly like the real character, Kamal el Fooly is very intelligent man who changes his opinion continuously according to the circumstances, so he becomes very loyal member in the Socialist party during Nasser's ruling then a very important member in the Middle party during Sadat's time and at last a very important member in the deomcratic party led by Mubarak which is mainly capitalist!!!!
he get large amount of money from dirty political deals, mainly from changing the real results of elections and gets paid 1million $ from Azzam to help him win the election, he is very strong insider in the political secrets and he could remove several minsters from their places due to scandals ..
he is one of Mubarak's important assistants and he gives Mubarak (the Big Boss) his share from every dirty deal....
and that exactly is what Kamal el Shazly used to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christine: one of the remaining foreigners after the revolution, she had an affair with Kamal but then turned to be his best friend of all time, she owns a par and sings there
Brian Whitaker wrote in the" unspeakable love " that when the translator asked el Aswany about certain expression in his novel about Hatim Rasheed as he wrote that Hatem looked very nice except for the sad apathetic look in his face which is a common feature in Gays!!! ... the translator thought that this is anti gay expression for western readers
So Alaa answered, I didn't mean that, I wanted to explain to every one in my novel that nobody is the problem of Egypt, not the Muslim nor the Christian nor the straight nor the gay alone
I wanted to explain that we are all the problem of Egypt..... that our way of thinking and the problem every one of us contributed to is the main problem of Egypt.... we are all the reason why our country remained undeveloped till now
although western readers may think of the expression as anti gay my own opinion ( as Ramy) is that this is the best novel that included gay life since Zokak El Madk of Nagib Mahfouz
so was the opinion of Brian Whitaker
Thank you Alaa for your amazing novel about Egypt... I'm sure this novel helped to wake up some people.... but the most important is that it was the sign of a new star that emerged in the sky of Egypt's literature and history
Alaa el Aswani......
you can always get more info and link about articles :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yacoubian_Building