The Mirage (Mahfouz novel)

The Mirage (Arabic السراب Al-Sarab) is a 1948 Egyptian novel by Naguib Mahfouz.[1] The novel was filmed as al-Sarab (The Mirage) by Anwar al-Shinawi.[2] Mahfouz has said that it is a personal novel based on his upbringing. Novel translated to English by Nancy Roberts.

2009 English translation
(publ. American University in Cairo Press)

Plot

The narrator, Kamel, recounts the story of his childhood in Cairo.[3] Kamel lives in his grandfather's home with his divorced mother. His mother is very caring and pampers him excessively, until he becomes shy and isolated from others. He sleeps in the same bed with her until he is 25. Kamel struggles in school due to his shyness, and he attends a university but fails to graduate.

He gets a government job and marries a teacher, but discovers on his wedding night that he is impotent. Kamel sees a psychiatrist to try to overcome his impotence, and eventually begins a sexual relationship with a prostitute. His mother and wife both die, and he decides to continue his relationship with the prostitute.

References
  1. Rasheed El-Enany, Naguib Mahfouz: The Pursuit of Meaning, 2003, p. 61 113490584X "In Mirage (1948) Mahfouz takes a momentary break from old Cairo with its seedy streets to pay a visit to al-Manyal, a decent middle-class area in the south-west of the capital. With the change of habitat there comes naturally a change in the inhabitants: none of the poor company of Midaq Alley here, but a wealthy family of Turkish descent. Unlike in Khan al-Khalili and Midaq Alley, the war has no part here to play ..."
  2. Trevor Le Gassick Critical Perspectives on Naguib Mahfouz 1991 p172 0894106597 "The movie of al-Sarab (The Mirage) by Anwar al-Shinawi, succeeds in conveying the educational and critical moral of the novel. The weak directing, however, reduces its artistic effect, and the emphasis on its humorous dimensions fails to ."
  3. Karen Long (11 September 2009). "'The Mirage,' the classic Egyptian novel from Naguib Mahfouz, is slyly relevant at age 60". Cleveland.com.


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