Regardless of whether or not one considers it literarily successful, Alaa Al Aswany's novel, The Yacoubian Building, has clearly achieved a certain kind of iconic status -- and so too now Nicholas Caey reports in the Wall Street Journal that 'The author of The Yacoubian Building and its real residents watch and worry as a revolution unravels' in considering Egypt's Agony on A Storied Street.
Yes, he actually starts his piece by suggesting:
Yes, he actually starts his piece by suggesting:
To understand the unrest that toppled the Egyptian government this week, start with a visit to Cairo's Yacoubian Building.Much as I like the idea of literature-as-reflection-of-reality (on a certain level), too often this sort of exercise strikes me as little more than the laziest of substitutes for actual reporting and analysis.