Helpful Score: 3
Naguib Mahfouz writes about the unease in Modern day Cairo. This particular book, about drug addicts who drift in a houseboat on the Nile is somewhat odd. (He wrote a trilogy that is much better, but much longer. ) This book is only about 166 pages. What is interesting about it is that it really gives you a a feeling of being in a place and having no idea of your world, of feeling like a prisoner of fate. It is interesting, but certainly not light and lively reading.
Would have been a good story but I couldn't get into it because of all the drugs.
A group of middle class Egyptians meet every night to smoke Kif (pot) and socialize on a house boat. The characters struggle with coming to terms with this historically new social status. Watch as death in all it's forms shakes things up and pours them out. For me it was an interesting look into marijuana culture in another country. A nice Shakespearean twist as a play wright develops a play about the characters within the narrative.