The Hashish Waiter (Modern Arabic Literature) Review

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The Hashish Waiter (Modern Arabic Literature) ReviewDue to my age and health, I'll never travel to Egypt - except through the books I read. This book gives us a thin slice of a small corner of the country and city of Cairo from about forty years ago. Most of all it gives the reader a glimpse into the people of that time (and today?).
The customers and employees of Hakeem's Den are the subject of the book; with particular emphasis on the Hashish Waiter named Rowdy Salih. Rowdy is a character lover's character. Of all the participants in the thousands of novels I've read, he is in a category of his own. Part philosopher, he becomes someone for the others to copy (unlikely as that seems).
We learn of his life in small chunks as the story advances. The group of customers, one of whom is the narrator, are varied in their places in Cairo's society. Each has a story that mingles with some part of Rowdy's story. The hashish dens, though illegal, are presented as ubiquitous and, though without the "chain name", seem to be the equivalent of the coffee shop on every corner in American cities.
The reader becomes adapted to the exotic environment as the story advances, but I knew that I was never going to have the first-hand familiarity of the Egyptian reader. Even so, I was amazed by how well the story pulled me into the lives of the characters. We also get to see their reactions to the history of that area in the '60s and '70s.
Written in 2000 and just now translated for the first time into English, Shalaby adds this to two others of his books to be available to us. This is translated by Adam Talib. The writing was smooth and without excess verbiage. I've purchased those other two books.
Delay getting "rowdy" long enough to get this read. Then ... well, you'll know what to do.
The Hashish Waiter (Modern Arabic Literature) OverviewA serious comic novel from the award-winning author of The Lodging House.Tucked away in a rundown quarter, just out of sight of fashionable downtown Cairo, a group of intellectuals gathers regularly to smoke hashish in Hakeem's den. The den is the center of their lives, both a refuge and a stimulus, and at the center of the den is the remarkable man who keeps their hashish bowls topped up - Rowdy Salih. While his former life is a mystery to his loyal clientele of writers, painters, film directors, and even window dressers, each sees himself reflected in Salih; but without his humor, humility, or insight, or his occasional passions fueled by hootch. And when the nation has to face its own demons during the peace initiative of the 1970s, it is Rowdy Salih who speaks for them all. This is a comic novel with a broken heart very like Salih himself, whose warm rough voice calls out long after we have recovered from the novel's painful conclusion.

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