It’s too easy to conflate one novel of an author with the total of that author’s work, as it’s also too easy to conflate an author winning the Nobel Prize as being a representative of their respective country as a stand-in for all literature of that country. Obviously there’s some Western chauvinism at play in doing so but also it’s quite limiting in its estimation of what that body of work might contain. Adrift on the Nile is a very different novel from Palace Walk (and […]
“He answered victoriously”
It’s hard to distill this 530 page novel into its essence for a short review. But we start off the novel with the wife of a middle-class store owner in Cairo in 1905 (ish) waking up at midnight in order to be ready to serve him when he comes home from a night of carousing. It doesn’t get much better for her. Over all, this novel is not a bleak dour recounting of how poorly treated the wives of Cairo were at the time, but […]
Palace Walk: The Dual Nature of Everything
I wear many hats. Employee (two places), wife, dog owner, and one of the most important ones, student. About three and a half years ago, I decided to go back to school and get my degree. It’s been a struggle trying to manage my time and not get burned out. It’s also been an incredible experience, knowing what I want to do and going after it like this. I’ve never understood the push to go to university right out of high school, but that’s a […]