War in the Land of Egypt

By Yusuf Qa'id and Youssef Al Quaïd

Book Overview

Egypt on the eve of the 1973 October war. A young man has been drafted into the army. His father, the village elder, persuades a poor night-watchman to send his own son as a stand-in. But the impersonation plan goes horribly wrong, with tragicomic results. Qa'id's tale of the fiasco -- steeped in irony and black humor -- parodies outrageous corruption and ludicrous bureaucracy. A skillfully crafted mosaic of life in modern Egypt.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566562279
• ISBN13: 9781566562270
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A sad tale of of a nation and of despair

A beautifully crafted fiction that illustrates in a vivid way much of Egypt social ills and its charms. Yusuf Al-Qa'id uses a very creative approach and highly unusual one in Egyptian novels to tell the story of a substitution of a poor peasant for the wealthy son of the village mayor. The story takes place in 1973, at a time when conscription lasted for indefinite periods of time and only few years after humiliation of the Egyptian military in 1967. Six different storytellers reveal the details of the story to us from very different perspectives with highly varying levels of empathy with the main character.Al Quid uses extensive symbolism in the story; none of the characters have names except for the main character who was given an unusual generic first name "the Egyptian". Oppressive social pressures, slaving for family status and appearances, corruption a patriarchal tyranny, city indifference, rich vs poor, gap of opportunity, oppression of authority, helplessness of the common and indeed of all Egyptians are all the strong and recurring themes throughout the book. The symbolism is generally not subtle and at times it feels like the author has tried to cover more social ills than anyone story can do justice. The story is too gripping to lose the reader in the midst of the litany of Egypt's social ills. While the six different story tellers help round out a more complete picture of the central sad tale as a whole, much of the story and many of the characters came across one dimensional, too cardboard like the good, the bad, the greedy, the conscientious, the helpless and so forth. Somehow, to me, it felt something was lacking despite the six different perspectives. All six storytellers painted the one vision the Al Qaid had, they told us different parts of the story, only in few cases did they really show us very different perspectives. While I have immensely enjoyed this novel, this one missing aspect detracted from it for me. The multiple storytellers is such an ideal way to portray more well rounded characters but was not fully utilized.

An Outstanding Writer and a Novel Worth Reading

After I read this book to an "unknown" author, it became clear to me why it was selected by the "Emerging Voices International Book Series" to be translated and introduced to the American reader. This novel takes place in Egypt during the 1973 war, where the son of a poor watch-man was coerced to send his son to the front instead of the son of a rich 'umda' or village chief. Although it takes place in a rural Egyptian village, yet it touches on issues that have no borders. It stimulates the reader to think deep inside about one's own beliefs on issues such as justice, social class and differences between the rich and the poor, the "haves" and the "have-nots". I was quite impressed by the innovative technique that the author has chosen to write his novel. The characters of the novel are also the narrators of the story. They are telling their sides of the story by talking directly to the reader, yet in a manner that maintains the fluency and continuity of the events without any repetition. The author deliberately omitted giving names to any of the characters, with the exception of the main character, a young man named "Masri" or the Egyptian, which symbolized the (Egyptian) people. This book cannot be described in a brief review effortlessly, somehow you must read it to get its full effect and meaning. Although it is written in a simple manner, yet I perceive it to be rather sophisticated invloving deep thought from the writer to reflect deeper meanings. Ther were a few typos in the text, but these did not take away from this wonderful novel, but clearly would have been better without. I believe that anyone who will read this book will appreciate an outstanding writer and an innovative novel.