The Oldest Story

It's been a long time since I've come across a book I want to burrow into and refuse to come out. I tend to like family epics that verge on the fantastical as the story unfolds to reveal the human condition. Like One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Midnight's Children, A Suitable Boy, and A Fine Balance.

Because Naguib Mahfouz died recently, I decided to read him. He's the only Arab writer who's ever won the Nobel Prize for literature. I picked up his book, Children Of The Alley and already, I am hooked on the first page. That's very powerful writing to hook me in so early.

The story parallels the bible - the casting out of Adham and his wife from the mansion, the fight between Adham's sons resulting in the death of one of them, the adoption of an orphan by a wealthy house and later the young man's return to his people to fight oppression by his adopted family's people. Mahfouz must subscribe to the theory that Christianity has its roots in Egyptian mythology.

As much as I know what happens next in the storyline, I can't put the book down. His writing is that compelling. Which proves that it's not so much the story, but the storyteller and the telling of it that draws us in. Maybe the same way gossip columnist make us flock to celebrity gossip. They are just repetitions of the same story with different spins on love, honour, betrayal, punishment and forgiveness.

So here's my own story of love and betrayal. Until Mahfouz died, I had never heard of him. The Man saw me reading Children Of The Alley and asked how I was enjoying the book. Then he told me he gave me a set of Mahfouz's books one Christmas because he knew I had an interest in Egyptian stories. Evidently, not only did I never open those books, I have no recollection of receiving them and certainly don't know where they are now.

But on reflection, I do recall a set of books that bore a name that could have been Mahfouz. I was so interested in that set of books, and believing them to belong to The Man, I packed them up in a box and sent them off to storage.