000			02027n a2200217 a 4500
001			061984
005			20231009193125.0
008			070413t19911991--------------000-u-eng-u
020			_a9780385264723
082	0		_aFIC MAH
100	1		_aMahfuz, Naguib _d(, 1911-2006)
245	1	4	_aThe Time and The Place and Other Stories
260			_aNew York _b: Doubleday and Company _c, c1991.
300			_a174 p. _c; 20 cm.
520			_aMahfouz, Egyptian novelist and 1988 Nobel laureate, is here represented by a novel and a book of stories showing his concern with the past versus the present a la Proust. The Search tells of Saber, son of a whore in Alexandria who deserted his high-born father at the time of his birth. She tells him on her deathbed that he must try to find his father in Cairo as his sole refuge from a life of crime. In Cairo, Saber meets two women, Elham and Karima. Elham counsels patients, but he yields to the opportunism of Karima's request that he kill her landlord husband for his money. Too late, he learns that Karima has been using him and that Elham in fact represented the better side of his nature. The Time and the Place , which includes a commendable introduction by the translator, is a collection of stories published from 1962 to 1988. It details the life of Cairo residents as they try to survive poverty, brood over death, and endure outmoded tradition. In the title story, which contemplates the supernatural, the narrator offers subjective explanation for the history of a family that lived in an old house. ``The Empty Cafe'' is a superb evocation of the loneliness of old age. ``The Ditch'' details a middle-class family forced by housing shortages to move into their ancestral mausoleum. Mahfouz is a somber writer, but his subtle narrative technique and stately prose give one much to ponder.
586			_aWinner Nobel Prize for literature, 1988
650		4	_aEgypt, ME (Imaginary place) _x--Fiction
655		7	_aShort stories
700	1		_aJohnson-Davies, Denys
942			_cMO
999			_c261100 _d261100