Book Description
There are nineteen works of fiction currently available in paperback from Anchor. Because of the many universal themes of Mahfouz's work, and the variety of titles from which one can choose, this guide has been designed to provide you with questions that can apply to any or all of the books by Mahfouz which you choose to read. The questions offer new perspectives and context for your conversations. Although each of Mahfouz's novels is a unique reading experience, in an effort to guide you in making a selection, it is suggested that you might particularly be interested in one of the four following titles, each of which represents a different decade of his career:
Palace Walk (1956),
Midaq Alley (1966),
The Harafish (1977), and
The Journey of Ibn Fattouma (1983).
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic book by a fantastic author.......2007-05-13
Naguib Mahfouz is one of the powerhouse writers in modern Arab literature and this book is one that should not be overlooked. The author crafts a story around the descendents of a rich Cairene tyrant and creates an allegory for the major motheistic religions of the world. His prose is wonderful and the story flows seamlessly. This book is rather profound in it's attitudes towards human history and social thinking and it's easy to see how this book stoked the ire of fundamental clergy after it's publication. Highly recommended for those interested in modern arab literature.
Provocative .......2007-03-17
Having wanted to read a novel by Mr.Mahfouz for years,I was lucky to have selected Children of the Alley to commence my love affair with his stories.You can smell this novelist's passion for the streets of Cairo from half the world away.His stories somehow come to life despite the translational barrier,I found myself following each unforgettable character,feeling their agony,their success,their humiliation and their shame. The provocative predictibilty of this novel is what makes it a remarkable read,how can he easily and every so simply identify these worldly controversial issues and put them into such a flawless context? The book is a challenging gift for the minds. Five starts to Mr.Mafouz,a gifted novelist,a passionate egyptian and shamlessly honest with his words.
A powerful allegory of human suffering.......2007-03-09
This is the story of the Gabalawi family. Gabalawi disowns his son Idris in favour of Adam and then puts the latter to the test. The children of the alley are all the people living in the Gabalawi Alley where Gabalawi is the ancestor who owns everything and everybody in the desert around it.
We meet Adham, Gabal, Rifan, Quassem and Arafa who each in their own way fight the injustice and the gangsters in the alley in order to free their fellow citizens from bondage and tyranny. But after each individual victory it inevitably turns out that the children of the alley fall back again into greed, corruption, crime and poverty while just a few enjoy wealth and power.
In this sense this is a powerful and daring narrative which teaches us a lot about the spiritual history of humankind. A powerful fable and a richly told story which embraces in its plot not only the world of the Middle East but the world itself.
A Brilliant Fable or Collection of Inter-related Short Stories.......2007-01-20
I would like to thank fellow reviewer Bruce Kendall for bringing this book to my attention.
Naguib Mahfouz is one of the most important of the modern Egyptian writers and this is a good place to start with his 20 or so current novels still in print.
This is not a novel, but a series of five similar stories about life in a small area known as the alley. Each story involves the same members of a related group of people but each story is set generations apart in time.
All the stories or the five sections of the book involve a conflict between the manager and his enforcer of a central and walled off estate and the rest of the members of the alley society who live outside the walls. It is a struggle for equality and human dignity by the peole in the alley versus the manager of the estate and his enforcers who want to control the wealth. It is a struggle between economic dominance and poverty.
Each story involves a central male protagonist who struggles to find equality and justice in his own way starting with Adham, and then followed by Gabal, Rifaa, Qassem, and Arafa. Each protagonist - in his own time or era - follows his own aggressive or passive style to try and reach his objectives. After the first section on Adham, each main character feels an attachment back to Adham and his successors, and that attachment plays a role in the subsequent stories
The story or fable is a brilliant work of literature. It is well written, entertaining, and it is an excellent read.
An allegorical tale.......2006-11-29
This novel about a community in some desert village is written with the simplicity of language that one associates with old myths, and underlying the story are indeed echoes, sometimes close and sometimes rather distorted, of ancient myths. God is allegorized as Gabalawi, the remote and mostly unseen owner of the estate of which the Children of the Alley are supposed to be his heirs. The central character in each of the five stories is up against the selfish and oppressive overseers who dominate the estate and its inhabitants with the help of their retinue of gangsters. The first of the stories evokes that of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the story of Cain and Abel; the second that of Moses and Pharaoh; the third that of Jesus; the fourth that of Muhammad.
Then there is a fifth story, in which the central figure, a `magician', is presumably a scientist. He tries to discover the secret of Gabalawi He fails to find it, but in the process he is instrumental in the death of Gabalawi `who had been easier to kill than to see'. It makes no difference: the scientist, who has invented a weapon of great destructive power, is forced to put it at the service of the new overseer, and the Children of the Alley remain as oppressed as ever, though they remain hopeful that one day `magic' will put an end to their suffering.
Subtle the book is not, either in content or in style; and in my view is far too long and far too repetitive. The overseers and the gangsters in each generation have different names, but as individuals they are indistinguishable one from another. A large number of the characters are perpetually angry or violent. They mostly `shout', `scream', `shriek', `yell', `cry' or `sneer', which becomes rather tiresome.
The literary quality of this novel is, I think, greatly inferior to Mahfouz's rightly famous Cairo Trilogy which has contributed to his having become the only Arab to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. But it is a courageous book for an Egyptian to have written: it has been banned in Egypt; its allegories enraged the Islamicists and led to an attempt on the author's life.
Average customer rating:
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The Back Alley Knight
Matt Anelli
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Comics & Graphic Novels
| Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1425777597 |
Customer Reviews:
Better understanding.......2007-09-23
The author of the book has gone through a similar run of events like I did when listening to 'Forever Changes'. You don't really know if you like it, but you keep listening to it and it gets better with every spin.
This book has given me an even deeper inside in the music and most of all the lyrics and is a great accompaniment to the CD.
Insightful but oftentimes pretentious.......2006-04-25
At times insightful, while at other times pretentious, this slim volume attempts an exegesis of the 1967 Love masterpiece in terms of its historical and spiritual context. Bleaker and far more inventive (musically and lyrically) than most of its psychedelic peers, Forever Changes is a prophetic work, according to the author, because it described the seeds of destruction present in the naivete of the flower power movement. The author's weakest moments, to me, come when he tries to connect the album to Gnosticism, a subject about which he does not seem to know much. (Perhaps his connections would have been more successful had he related the album to the perennial philosophy in more general terms, since many of the ideas he ascribes to Gnosticism could also just as easily be found in Hinduism and Buddhism.) Despite the author's pretensions, the book is a well-written, thought-provoking skeleton key to one of the most interesting rock albums ever recorded. (What we really need is for Julian Cope to write a guide to this album...)
A Thinking Man's Guide.......2005-09-22
Forever Changes is one of my all-time favorite albums and is one of the few I listened to as a youth that I never tire of hearing. So naturally I am as interested in reading about the enigmatic Arthur Lee and his band as I am in listening to them.
I just recently got around to reading this book having had no idea what to expect of the author. At first, I was annoyed by his hard left political rants but then as I read on, I became engrossed by his obviously educated take on the album and its meaning. Make no mistake, if you are expecting airy gossip, then pass this book by. Hultkrans' Forever Changes is a thinking man's guide to the album. You may or may not agree with what he says, but you will come away at the end of the book listening to the album with a different mindset. You may even come away wanting to explore the writings of Kierkegaard, Huysmans, Woolf, and other referenced writers to see where Lee may have gotten existential inspiration.
Some reviewers didn't find much about Forever Changes in these pages. I found a great deal, not only about the songs, but about the peculiar cultural milieu that spawned Lee. I don't understand why several of the reviewers complain about the elevated tone of Hultkrans' exegesis. Most people I know who really like Forever Changes are of a thoughtful bent, so I would think that most who want to get beneath the surface of Lee's lyrics would be delighted by the approach here. After all, taken literally many of the songs seem nonsensical. However, when they are examined from the viewpoint of the arcane philosophies that seemed to animate Lee, then they begin to make some sense.
I enjoyed reading Forever Changes and would recommend it to anyone interested in looking at a great album in a radical new way. It would have gotten five stars had Hultkrans managed to keep his off-topic political biases to himself.
A little o' this, a little o' that.......2005-06-28
As others have noted here, you're not really going to learn a great deal about "Forever Changes" per se by reading this book. But there is a great deal of merit here, albeit of a quirky kind that certainly won't interest all Love fans. Personally, I went through a journey with this book not unlike the five stages of grief, though not necessarily in the typical order.
Initially, as I began to realize that the author was just plunging us through one literary mini-exegesis after another while barely mentioning the putative subject of the book, I felt extremely frustrated. This compounded my irritation at his political soapboxing, which would have been bad enough no matter his views, but was particularly egregious in that he was peddling tired post-1960s leftist orthodoxy. (In one particularly striking statement, he informs us that America often executes its prophets, which made me wonder who he was talking about--Timothy McVeigh? Presumably not; I suppose he's referring to several well-known acts of assassination as de facto execution by a government cabal--but what exactly does this have to do with *Forever Changes*?)
Long before I threw down the book in disgust, however, I found myself strangely drawn in by it. Though arguably ancillary to the subject at hand, the discussions of various literary works and worldviews as a context for FC gradually became more and more interesting--especially when the author raised the subject of gnosticism.
And when he finally did get around to actually talking about one of the greatest albums of all time, the author had some good insights. For instance, he's the first writer on the subject (at least of those I've read) who has taken note of the many references to reincarnation scattered through FC (e.g., "I've been here once, I've been here twice"; "I'll be back, just save a seat for me"; "...once when I was an Indian...") And though some of his intellectual flights of fancy are a little questionable, he does a great service by showing the direct influence *Marat/Sade* had on Arthur Lee.
In the end, I was half-impressed, half-not. Given what the author apparently set out to write, I think this should have been a longer book. Nor should it have been part of the Thirty Three and a Third Series, which automatically made it seem like something it wasn't: a guide to the album and how it came into being. Also, with so many references to works of literature, a bibliography would have been nice.
good music, interesting lyrics, strange book.......2005-06-19
"The gnomic interiority of its lyrics invites the type of deep exegesis usually reserved for..." is not a really atypical sentence opening in Hultkrans' book. If you like "Love" and this sort of writing, you will really like this book. Otherwise, you may be better off reading the book on the group by Love's 3rd drummer, Michael Stuart-Ware.
Average customer rating:
- Please find another writing partner
- I actually liked some of it but...
- It passed the time.
- If you liked the first two... Don't Read This!
- Pray this is the last book in this series
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The Third Magic (Forever King Trilogy)
Molly Cochran
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Cochran, Molly | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books | Card, Orson Scott | Cherryh, C.J.
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:
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The Broken Sword: King Arthur Returns
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The Forever King (Forever King Trilogy)
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Grandmaster (Otto Penzler Presents)
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World Without End
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One Knight Only
ASIN: 0812545125
Release Date: 2004-06-01 |
Book Description
Eight years ago, a young red-haired boy discovered that he was the reincarnation of Arthur, once High King of Britain, master of the Round Table, wielder of Excalibur and the Holy Grail, fated to one day reclaim his throne and lead the world into a new golden age. Almost immediately, people started trying to kill him. Arthur has been on the run or in hiding since he was ten years old.Four years ago, after a climactic battle between the resurrected Knights of the Round Table and a dark magician determined to warp the powers of the Grail to his own evil purpose, Arthur Blessing spoke to television cameras, and therefore the world. He told them the time for hatred and fear was over and that a new time of peace was at hand.Pursued as a new messiah, Arthur disappeared to a small farm in the American Midwest, surrounded by his Knights, protected most of all by Hal, most recently an FBI agent, but, long ago, Sir Galahad.Now Arthur is eighteen, and Merlin has come to bring him to his destiny. There's just one small problem.Arthur. What is he going to do as High King? How can he unite and heal such a deeply wounded world? No one believes in all that chivalry stuff anymore, and besides, he's not sure mankind is worthy of the powers of the Sword and the Grail.Yet those powers are needed, now most of all. Now, with a master terrorist preparing to strike Cheyenne Mountain, to blow up the heart of America's nuclear arsenal and spread radioactive death across the planet. Now, with a psychopathic killer on the loose, a man determined to personally slaughter the Knights and Arthur himself. Now, with a chance to find Guinevere again, to put right their love that was spoiled and betrayed centuries ago.Arthur Blessing. The Once and Future King. Now he must choose his fate.
Customer Reviews:
Please find another writing partner.......2007-08-20
I would have to agree with the other reviews entirely, disjointed characters dropping into the nether land only to be glimpsed as a spirit out of the corner of your eye. I got the impression this was written in haste and it shows, (let's just get the third one out and be done!) the author owes her fans (now previous) more than this. I actually thought there must be a 4th book coming out as the characters just flat disintegrated, what a way to end what started as a good inovative new look at the age old problem of might vs right. Both the editor and author should be ashamed (actually I would fire the editor) to put this chaos into publication, at least put out a 4th book to clean up the mess.
I actually liked some of it but..........2007-01-06
like everyone's been saying, there were a lot of inconsistancies, and i wish they had had more on other characters from previous books, such as beatrice, and less of just the hal and emily thing. she didnt really mention anything of them at all. also, towards the end it just got, blah. the last few chapters just seemed so bad.
It passed the time........2006-01-15
I didn't actually realise that this book was the third in a series. Now that I have read other readers reviews, I am relived to know that I have a more interesting read ahead of me with The Forever King. Life is too short to read a really boring book, or drink bad wine. I finished this book so it couldn't have that boring. The author did portray the knights as complete heathens, I suppose it must been hard to fit in when you have been thrust into a different century altogether. I liked the modern day take on Arthur but wouldn't recommend it unless it was the only book on the shelf.
If you liked the first two... Don't Read This!.......2005-10-31
It's always kind of unsettling when you pick up a book from a series and after about five pages you're wondering if the dustjacket got switched with another book. As near as I can tell, the only things that are continued from the first books are the character's names. And even then...
Even barring the following issues with the content, the dialogue is choppy and unbelieveable, and the new flashback conventions were just bizzare and jilted, jumping in and out without any real sense of cohesion.
The story from the first two books is semi-continued, but only in name. It's sad to note that while the first two books were written by the team of Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran, this solo book by Cochran didn't have the pacing, the continuity or the compelling characters from the first two.
The new villains were two dimensional unlike Saladin and Thanatos from the first two books. The flashbacks, which really drew the story along previously came off more like the book that Cochran wanted to write. They contradicted the earlier books. Oh, and the contradictions! ARRRGH! Emily Blessing was supposed to see HAL at the restaurant before the fire from the second book, and never see him again. Now she's a major-ish player? Taliesin, one of my previously favorite characters in the books, went from being a character worthy of care and pity to a character that would apparently be happier in a polka-dot suit and a BIG SHINY NOSE! Did Cochran actually go back and re-read the first two to find out what happened? Was this the editor's first book?
Frankly, while I was towards the end, the only reason I didn't put it down was just to find out how horribly it ended. I wasn't dissappointed on that front. By the last page, I had forgotten most of the book and was trying out omelet recipes in my head.
I've read the previous authors' other books, including World Without End, and I was impressed with them... obviously, or I wouldn't have picked up this hamster cage fodder. I'm more likely to pick up Mr. Murphy's books, since he's apparently the one that was steering this ship.
On the upside, it's inspired me to dust off my keyboard and start writing again, I can't wait until next year's release of the third book from Peter David's superior Knight Life books, and the coffee table in my living room doesn't wobble any more.
Oh, and what happened to Beatrice? Sheesh...
Pray this is the last book in this series.......2004-07-06
Having read The Forever King and The Broken Sword, I would never have believed a book could be so bad, if for no other reason than the editors would refuse to publish it. Wrong.
Major characters from previous books, such as Beatrice in the second book, simply do not exist in the book or are completely marginalized, such as Zack. The knights who are at least knightly in the first book are reduced to glorifed Rednecks in this one.
I would complain about the plot line, but first there would have to be one. I would say the character development was shallow, but this makes "shallow" look deep. This book is to a good read as Velveeta is to fine cheese, as Spam is to prime rib as... well, I think the point is conveyed.
If you should get the "opportunity" to buy this book, don't. You will be incredibly disappointed.
By all means read the first book, The Forever King. And then stop, as the characters and plot degenerate rapidly afterwards.
If it were only possible to give negative scores, this book would most certainly qualify.
Book Description
When Officer Grace Stevens returns to college for an advanced degree, she doesn't expect to stumble into the web of a serial rapist whose charm and skill on the football field hide a much more sinister side. In the big money arena of college sports where winners are above the law, Grace finds herself playing a dangerous game against an opponent who doesn't like to lose.
Customer Reviews:
Paid $1 for book and want my money back.......2007-09-01
I picked this book up at a dollar store and want my money back. If you are looking for a story with weaving plots and brilliant detective work, forget this one. The cover of the book tells you who the perp is. And inside, the cops were given his identity on a silver platter...there is no suspense. I got so bored many times that I just flipped past several pages at a time. I kept reading the darn thing thinking it would get better. When I finished it, I couldn't believe that was it!
The author veered completely away from the story several times and went in directions that made me keep asking, "What does this have to do with anything?" As it turned out, nothing.
And on the characters, you have little idea of what anyone looks like and they faded in and out so fast you don't get to know anyone.
I just didn't get this one at all.
Great Read.......2006-10-12
The way Clausen develops and carves out his main characters is awesome. Even the marginal players are notable in his work. "Third and Forever" is an excellant read for a rainy weekend.
Third & Forever.......2006-09-29
Love this one as much as his book, 2nd watch! Is there going to be another adventure soon??
Customer Reviews:
I would recommend this book to others........1999-03-16
I like Stacy,the main character, because she is nice.I learned that it would be hard if third grade lasted forever. This book reminded me of the book "The Man Who Loved Clowns". Stacy was a lot like the sister in "The Man Who Loved Clowns".
I realy recomend this book........1998-12-25
its about a girl named Tracy who's having a troubled life.it has sad times, happy times.put this your "must buy list!".teacers: third graders will love it!! I know,because Iam in third grade too!!!
Average customer rating:
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Ramona Forever (Ramona Quimby (Paperback))
Beverly Cleary
Manufacturer: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Cleary, Beverly | ( C ) | Authors & Illustrators, A-Z | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Ramona | Humorous | Series | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Fiction | Girls & Women | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0440800056 |
Product Description
Whats going to happen next at the Quimby house? Things are changing quickly for Ramona, who finds that being a grown-up third-grader is hard work. Nothing is the way it used to be. Mr. Quimby worries about finding a teaching job, while Ramona worries about where theyll move if he does. Then Ramonas Aunt Bea says shes getting married in two weeks. This is Ramonas big chance to be a bridesmaid, but can they plan such a wedding in such short of time? What will happen next? One surprise seems to follow another. But what will Ramona say about the biggest surprise of all-one that will change her life forever?
Product Description
4 Summer of the Sisterhood ANN BRASHARES Books - 1) - Book One: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / 2) - The Second Summer of the Sisterhood / 3- Third: Girls in Pants / 4- Fourth: Forever in Blue - (Unboxed Set), in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.
Average customer rating:
- Great Love story
- Time travel adventure with a twist
- Good book
- Finished the book and wow
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Forevers Journey, the Third Installment of the Dark Angel Series
John LaJoie
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Romance | Subjects | Books | Anthologies | Authors, A-Z | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Contemporary | Erotica | Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost | General | Gothic | Historical | Large Print | Multicultural | Regency | Religious | Romantic Suspense | Series | Time Travel | Vampires | Western | Writing
ASIN: 1411648528 |
Book Description
John Joliea, CEO of Xandow Industries is poised on the brink of destruction. Unable to shake away the death of a woman he loved years ago, he begins the search for a powerful and rare mineral named IC3 to finalise his secretive plans to returning back into the past to save her.
But until enough of the mineral can be found, John takes the advice of friends to fill in his time off with a distraction. He suddenly catches sight of a dilapidated car named Angea on it's final way to junkyard. After purchasing the car, work begins on the wreck and soon after John finds comfort in the arms of Jane Richards, one of the leading scientist working beside him on the Phoenix Project back at Xandow. Together they restore the car back with amazing results in their spare time.
One night while working on the car alone, John uncovers a deadly secret from Angel's past and history surrounding this unusual car. With a recent find made of the rare IC3 needed for time travel, John begins his trip into the past and corrects it to what he believes to be right.
After the pitfall into the past, he returns to his own timeline finding that the future is much different than he envisioned. From the tragedy surrounding the days of September 11, to unraveling the course of events that followed, John finds that the Futures Journey is more than be bargained for.
Customer Reviews:
Great Love story.......2005-10-22
Read book 1 and found it moving, but this story takes on a whole entire way to reading. Fast moving, interesting sub-plots and believable characters. 4 Stars...
Time travel adventure with a twist.......2005-10-12
Just finished my copy of the book and all I can say is WOW. Nice twist to the storyline and a surprise to what happens to the girl in the end.
Good book.......2005-10-02
For those who like a time traveling romance set the past 20 years, this is a sure winner. I found the characters believable and the story moving in the end.
Finished the book and wow.......2005-10-02
Great plot, story moves at the speed on light. It took me just over two nights to finish. Definately worth the purchase.
Average customer rating:
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Third & Forever
Lowen Clausen
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000SR1ZF4 |
Books:
- Clay's Quilt (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
- Clear Mind, Wild Heart
- Darkblade: Bloodstorm (Warhammer)
- Dead Creek (Loon Lake Fishing Mystery)
- Dead Watch
- Dinner With Anna Karenina
- Exes and Ohs
- Fallen Dragon
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
- Forever Peace (Remembering Tomorrow)
Books Index
Books Home
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The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
Palace of Desire (Cairo Trilogy II)
Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy, 3)
Arabian Nights and Days: A Novel
Midaq Alley
