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the complete review - autobiographical

Echoes of an Autobiography

by
Naguib Mahfouz

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : odd and not always successful collection of short prose pieces

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Echoes of an Autobiography is something of a surprise: not so much a record of a long life (Mr Mahfouz is now 85) as a collection of allusions and aphorisms. The obvious comparison is with the mystic musing of Lebanon's Kahlil Gibran (...) Look a little deeper, however, and what emerges is the familiar Mahfouz obsession with humanity's foibles." - The Economist
  
  
• "Naguib Mahfouz (...) packs a lifetime of wisdom and reverence into this slim new book. This is not a dry, academic "I was born here, studied there" recounting, but a series of half-page meditations which capture the essence of a writer deeply tuned in to the spirituality of the everyday." - Robert Spillman, Salon
  
  
• "If you are looking for an autobiography of Naguib Mahfouz, or even for the echoes of one, please ignore this book. (...) However, if what you want is the quintessential Mahfouz (...) you need look no further. It is all here in this quaint book of mystical aphorisms and parables, which is reminiscent of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. (...) The account of events we normally expect in an autobiography is nowhere to be found here. What we find is their profound meaning which is often lost on us as we get bogged down in the confused detail of life and the inevitable partiality of our vision." - Rasheed El-Enany, Times Literary Supplement

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Though titled Echoes of an Autobiography, the echoes in this collection are very faint indeed. That isn't necessarily a bad thing: in this tell-all and bare-all age an elliptical and spare variation on the theme is a welcome change. But Mahfouz's book ultimately strays too far away from the personal.
       Echoes of an Autobiography consists of short prose-pieces, each with a separate title. Few are more than a page in length, some essentially just a single sentence. Some two-thirds of the book does focus on the first-person experiences and memories of the author: brief scenes from a life. With the appearance of Sheik Abd-Rabbih al-Ta'ih then there is a shift, as this wise man's wisdom is then presented -- first related from the author's point of view, but then only presented as: "Sheik Abd-Rabbih al-Ta'ih said:".
       Mahfouz's memories and reflections offer intriguing but also frustratingly incomplete glimpses from his life, and in particular his youth. Episodes, loves, dreams are all too often only briefly recounted. Rarely does a piece offer greater obvious insight, though a few do -- "An Unwritten Letter" nicely considers the fate of Mahfouz and two of his childhood friends who all parted ways at the age of nine, one now an important judge, the other just sentenced to death for a murder.
       The sections offering the wisdom of Sheik Abd-Rabbih al-Ta'ih are also not entirely satisfactory, his pearls probably not to everyone's liking (or understanding). One can read a good deal into some of these sayings, but they are of a playful religious-mystic sort that might not satisfy those used to more precise expression. (No doubt, there are also translation-issues here, which further complicate matters.) So, for example, among the Sheikh's offerings:

The nearest man comes to his Lord is when he is exercising his freedom correctly.

With the inhalation of the universe and its exhalation, all joys and pains are in raptures.

If you are afflicted with doubt, then look at length in the mirror of your self.

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Links:

• American University in Cairo Press publicity page
• Anchor publicity page
• Unionsverlag publicity page

• Eclectica
• Salon
• The Spectator

• See the complete review's Naguib Mahfouz page.
• Naguib Mahfouz at books and writers
• Nobel Prize in Literature (1988)

• Adrift on the Nile
• Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth
• Arabian Nights and Days
• Before the Throne
• The Beginning and the End
• Cairo Modern
• The Cairo Trilogy:
  • Palace Walk
  • Palace of Desire
  • Sugar Street
• The Coffeehouse
• The Day the Leader Was Killed
• The Dreams
• The Final Hour
• Heart of the Night
• In the Time of Love
• The Journey of Ibn Fattouma
• Karnak Café
• Khufu's Wisdom
• Life's Wisdom
• Love in the Rain
• Morning and Evening Talk
• Naguib Mahfouz at Sidi Gaber
• Respected Sir
• Rhadopis of Nubia
• Thebes at War
• Wedding Song

• See Index of Arabic literature
• Bertolt Brecht's Stories of Mr. Keuner
• See Index of Books by Nobel laureates under review
• Other books from American University in Cairo Press

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About the Author:

       Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz (نجيب محفوظ, Nagib Machfus) was born in 1911 and died in 2006 He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1988.

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