First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

It this second volume of The Cairo Trilogy, the master storyteller spins a sensual, provocative tale, following the al-Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920s, where increased freedoms prove as troubling as domination and repression once did. Like Palace Walk, Palace of Desire affords a fascinating look at a period of modern Egyptian history by lovingly and painstakingly examining the day-to-day lives of a single family.

Happy Friday everyone! Well, technically it should be Saturday. HAHA. I apologize for the late update; I was out last night. Thankfully, the rains here in the Philippines have subsided; we are currently in what we call the rainy season. It is starting to warm up again. I hope that wherever you are, you are all doing well and are keeping warm in the comfort of your own homes. On another note, I hope that everyone is wrapping up the week on a high note. I hope that everyone’s day and week went well. If it went the other way around, I hope that you will spend the weekend recovering. I hope you get your groove back. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

To cap another week of blogging, I will be sharing a fresh First Impression Friday update, the first for this month. Woah. Time does fly fast. Before we know it, it will already be September and then a new year will be around the corner. As we enter a new month, I am also commencing a new literary journey. From a two-month venture across the Asian continent for the best of its works of literature, I am now embarking on a journey across the African continent. Like Asian literature, my foray into African literature is quite limited. As such, I have been hosting African literature month. However, the last time I did so was back in early 2021. Nearly a year and a half later, I am back to the vast African continent.

Kicking off this journey is Nobel Laureate in Literature Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace of Desire; this is the second consecutive book by a Nobel Laureate in Literature I read, after Orhan Pamuk’s Nights of Plague. Palace of Desire is the second book in Mahfouz’s highly-heralded The Cairo Trilogy ( الثلاثية ath-thulathia (‘The Trilogy’) or ثلاثية القاهرة thulathia al-Qahra), a trilogy I long wanted to read. I obtained the first book in the trilogy way back in 2015 (or 2016) but I put reading the book when I learned it was part of a trilogy. I wanted to have all three books first before I start reading. Thankfully, after more or less six years, I was able to complete all three books last year. It was also late last year that I read the first book.

The second book picks up on the closing events of the first book. Mahfouz again transports the readers to the labyrinthine world of Cairo; all three books in the trilogy were named after alleys or streets where the stories transpired. We again meet the al-Jawad family. The patriarch still, al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, still loomed large in the story. The first book concluded with the death of Fahmy, who was referred to as al-Jawad’s most promising son. Fahmy had two other brothers: Yasin who inherited the vices of the father and Kamal who was starting to befriend the British soldiers. The household also had two daughters, Maryam and Khadija.

The forces that threatened to undermine the family in the first book were again in full force. Following the death of his second son, the patriarch returned to his old ways. He started enjoying alcohol and women again. With this digression, the rest of the family also started showing changes. Yasin retreated to his biological mother’s ancestral house in the titular Palace of Desire Alley. The matriarch, Amina, also started assuming more authority in the household. She made changes where she saw fit.

I do feel, however, that the central figure in the story was Kamal, the family’s youngest child. Five years after his brother’s death, Kamal is now about to enter university. This also entailed discussions with his father. The earlier parts of the novel revolved around this discussion. Kamal wanted to enroll in the Teachers Training College. This disappointed his father as he was hoping his son would pursue something more meaningful or more promising such as law. It did not help that Kamal’s friends were also against the idea. They feel like a degree in teaching is not worth it. Kamal, however, had his own ideas. He wanted to use this degree as a springboard to learn about other cultures and other intellectual pursuits.

Considering the period the novel was set, these are just preludes to the real messages the novel has in store. The 1920s was a decade where great changes were taking place in Egypt. Nationalism was slowly taking root as the locals were seeking separation from the British. These nationalist calls were also present in the first book of the novel. It is this aspect of contemporary Egyptian history that Mahfouz will focus on in his second book. The al-Jawad family will still be the microcosm of these changes. I am also looking at a vivid depiction of quotidian Egyptian life during the 1920s.

I can’t wait to see how the story pans out. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you taking with you for the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy them. Again, happy weekend everyone!