Chicago

Yesterday Alaa Al Aswany's new novel, "Chicago," came out. There was an impressive crowd at the Dar El Shurouq bookstore at the First Mall in the Four Seasons Hotel in Giza. Ibrahim Eissa (editor of El Dustour, where the novel has been serialized in the last months--the last chapter comes out this Wednesday) and Galal Amin (the AUC professor and author of "Whatever Happened to the Egyptians?" series, who wrote the blurb on the back of the book) were there, as well as a lot of leftist-leaning writers and intellectuals. There was quite a press to get one's book signed--TV crews kept interviewing Al Aswany during the signing (causing indignant protests from the queue) and I'm sorry to report that many semi-eminent personages cut shamelesslly to the front of the line.

Al Aswany lived in Chicago when he was studying dentistry and he's apparently drawn on this experience for his second novel, which (I believe, I haven't read it yet) focuse on an Arab-American family. It's also a critique of American society (apparently, some have told the author it's downright anti-American). One wonders if such a book will be as well received as Al Aswany's prodigiously successful The Yacoubian Building, which has now been translated into about 15 languages, was a best-selling book in France recently, and is night-stand reading for Middle East diplomats such as Karen Hughes.