The Yacoubian Building

My original hostel had some overbooking issues this week so they decided to move me to another location owned by the same family. The location happens to be on the 4th floor of the Yacoubian Building, a little piece of Cairo history idolized in Alaa al-Aswany's famous novel of the same name. For those of you who haven't read it, it's a great depiction of modern Egyptian social life and the dichotomies imbedded within it: the disparity between rich and poor, religious and non-religious, adopted Western culture and Middle Eastern culture, and so on. By tracing the lives and struggles of a diverse spectrum of Egyptian citizenry, it talks a lot about Egypt's overall failure to provide opportunities for its people to live full lives. Even the rich--who were the original inhabitants of the Yacoubian Building in the 20s and 30s--reminisce about the old days when Egypt actually had something going for it (in their view at least).

Anyway, it's a great read (trust me, I'm very picky). If you want a book that gives a really good insight into what contemporary Arab society--with all its complexities-- is all about, I would say look no further.