Midaq Alley by Naquib Mahfouz

An intimate story of the various characters within a generic street in Cairo. With no sympathetic characters it was a difficult book to warm to. The characters seemed be symbolic of types rather than characters in themselves. It may have been the translation but the prose lacked some lyricism. Of those that finished the book it was liked, but generally rather a luke warm reception. Marks out of 10 between 3 - 7. Comments: a portrait rather than a story, good but didn't rock my world, post war Coronation Street on hashish, not as much fun as Twilight!

Next Book
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Next Meeting
Thursday 17th December

Meet at 234 Munster Road to talk about the book
and then out to a restuarant for a Christmas get together.