Naguib Mahfouz, RIP

0 Comments POSTED: August 30, 2006 11:03 | By: Thom Powers
mahfouz.gifI saw the headline this morning that Naguib Mahfouz (left) died today at age 94. The Egyptian novelist won the Nobel Prize in 1988. Many of his stories were turned into films over the years.

In 2002, a friend brought me to Mahfouz's weekly salon at a hotel in Cairo. There were sixteen local writers sitting in a circle. Because Mahfouz was so hard of hearing, each person would take turns sitting in the seat beside him screaming that week's news and gossip into his ear. My friend whispered translations of the Arabic into my ear. There was a lot of discussion of Nasser and turning points in modern Egyptian history. I started to wonder if the group returned to the same topics every week. Still it was all fresh to me. And terribly exciting until the spell was broken with one bit of recent gossip that required no translation: "Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise."

In his Nobel speech, Mahfouz said, "You may be wondering: This man coming from the third world, how did he find the peace of mind to write stories? You are perfectly right. I come from a world labouring under the burden of debts whose paying back exposes it to starvation or very close to it."

He summarized some of the world's sorrows then came round to answering his question:

 "Yes, how did the man coming from the Third World find the peace of mind to write stories? Fortunately, art is generous and sympathetic. In the same way that it dwells with the happy ones it does not desert the wretched."

[Update: see more links to Mahfouz at Greencine]

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