So beautifully written.
The Cairo Trilogy consisting of three books (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street) trace three generations of an Egyptian family. This family is headed by a tyrannical patriarch who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence.
She dearly loved this street, which stayed awake all night keeping her heart company. It was a friend but ignorant of the heart that loved it through the shutters of the enclosed balcony. Its features filled her mind, and its evening inhabitants were live voices inhabiting her ears - like this waiter who never stopped talking, the person with the hoarse voice who commented on the events of the day without getting tired or annoyed, the man with the nervous voice trying his luck at cards with the seven of diamonds and the jack, and the father of Haniya - the little girl with whooping cough - who night after night would reply when asked about her, "Our Lord will be able to cure her." - Palace of Desire
The italicized paragraph above reflects Amina's (his wife) thoughts. Amina has never stepped out of her husband's home ever since she got married. She lived behind shuttered windows and can only imagine the outside world through the noises she hears and the stories her children relay to her. She lives in a world that is so foreign to the one we live in. Though her husband's treatment towards her may seem evidently harsh to us, she does not seem to feel oppressed. Perhaps because her mother and the women around her have always been treated the same way. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. That is the way of life, she says. In fact, she takes pride and seems somewhat arrogant in her ability to be blindly obedient.
Such a different world.
And that's just one part of it. The novel also depicts her rebellious children struggling to move beyond their father's domination.
It's a good read. But be prepared, its 1313 pages long =)
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