# The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cairo-trilogy-by-naguib-mahfouz/425223 "2007-11-04T23:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cairo-trilogy-by-naguib-mahfouz/425223/1 "2007-11-04T23:06:08Z")
Has anyone else read these books? I have found a few mentions of them in a search, but I did not see any kind of discussion. Possible spoilers below: I really enjoyed **Palace Walk**. I fell in love with the characters, despite their flaws. I found the description of family life fascinating and endlessly entertaining. While others have complained that the book had a glacial pace, I rather enjoyed enjoyed it. **Palace of Desire** was good, though I did get tired of Kamal’s constant moanings about love. I still felt connected to the characters. I could even muster some sympathy for Yasin, mostly because the reader spent some time in his head and heard his inner turmoil. If it weren’t for Kamal’s ceaseless pining, I would have enjoyed this book as much as the first. Now **Sugar Street** … I really didn’t like it. All of the promise from the first two books is gone, completely. I found Yasin disgusting. Kamal was tiresome. Almost no time was spent with individual characters. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the grandkids, because I had no connection whatsoever to them. Time passed in leaps and bounds. I found the constant political talk inane (especially since I know very little about Egyptian politics). I wanted to shoot Kamal and just get it over with. I felt Aisha’s destiny was tragic and ultimately pointless. Now that I know how it ends, I almost wish I had stopped after the first book. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cairo-trilogy-by-naguib-mahfouz/425223/2 "2007-11-05T00:13:05Z")
Good to know. I’m reading the first book now, and I’m pretty sure I won’t read the third one. About a third of the way through Palace Walk I decided not to finish it. Then I read a little further because I didn’t have another book at hand, and got interested enough in it to want to finish it. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cairo-trilogy-by-naguib-mahfouz/425223/3 "2007-11-07T03:39:34Z")
I hope my opinion alone convinced you not to finish the series! Even now, I find myself waffling over whether or not I regret reading the third book. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cairo-trilogy-by-naguib-mahfouz/425223/4 "2007-11-07T22:50:52Z")
We’ll see. I’m still not done with Palace Walk. If it makes you feel better, I’ll ask some more people for their opinions before I make up my mind about reading the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cairo-trilogy-by-naguib-mahfouz/425223/5 "2007-11-08T00:38:40Z")
It’s been a while since I’ve read the trilogy but I loved it. Well, I loved the first book, the second was liked, while the third was admired from a distance with the covers firmly closed. I was really disappointed in Kamal. He had such potential in the first book and he just philosophically whizzed it all away. I’m sure someone could make a case that he represented something about Egypt in the twentieth century, but he was really just a whiny boy who really needed to get over his First True Love. I don’t see how Aisha could have ended up any other way, though. What options did she have? She was a part of the old ways and didn’t have the same outlook her daughters did. She finally got a rest.