Sonallah Ibrahim (Arabic: ) is an Egyptian novelist and short story writer. Ibrahim is one of the "sixties Generation" who is known for his leftist and nationalist views which are expressed rather directly in his work. His novels, especially the last ones, incorporate many excerpts from newspapers, magazines and other political sources as a way to enlighten the people about a certain political or social issue. Because of his political opinions he was imprisoned in the 1960s. His imprisonment is featured in his first book, a collection of short stories called "That smell" 鬲賱賰 丕賱乇丕卅丨丞, is one of the first writings in Egyptian literature to adopt a modernist style. His latest book, Memoirs of the Oasis Prison, returns to the same theme. In harmony with his political ideas, he recently refused to accept a prestigious literary award worth 100,000 Egyptian pounds from Egypt's ministry of culture.
It was just okay. There were sections that were more history lesson than novel. Although those sections were good at giving a feeling of the the local and global political chaos that put enormous pressure on Beirut, it wasn't enough for an OCD mind like mine that wanted mastery of the subject or nothing. Perhaps the thing that dropped my rating to two stars was a bit of a MeToo moment near the end.
this was given to me free by netgalley for a honest review.. really enjoyed this book loosely based on the authors own experiences in Beirut in the early 1980's and liked how the book took to you to the heart of the city with the backdrop of a civil war and how destroying that it for a society in turmoil but however people still exist and have the same emotions of love betrayal. the more descriptive parts of the book where the author is doing the voiceover parts for the film is quite graphic about the loss of life and torture.
For a lebanese I think that this book is very educational. It helped me understand some of the secrets of the war that my parents lived. However, I鈥檓 not very sure about the truth of some of the details of the book. This said, the story is not excellently written. Sometimes the events tend to be very slow and sometimes they have faster pace. It makes the reader a little bit lost between what鈥檚 truly important in the story. And the way the book ends sicken me a little bit