CAIRO: Abdel Hakim Kasem s Ayam El Ensan EL Sabaa (The Seven Days of Man) paints a unique and detailed picture of life in a small village in Egypt. The novel tells the story of Abdel Aziz, the son of a respected mystic village leader who could not be physically closer, yet at the same time, emotionally distant from his son.
While the father delights in his nightly meetings with his peers and sessions of zikr, Abdel Aziz, whose presence is mandatory, finds it all too paradoxical. Nothing seems to unsettle the father s peace, while Abdel Aziz s mind is livid and his heart is shrouded in sadness, which thickens as he tries to make sense of his life and its irrational constraints.
The father seems to have only one ambition to live for, which is to make the yearly journey, or rather pilgrimage, from his village to the mausoleum of Ahmad Al Badawy, a Sufi icon, on the anniversary of his birth. His willingness to sacrifice the last of his household’s food stock to offer it to the poor, who expect it on that occasion, goes unchallenged. Though his entire family suffers from the father s indulgence, opposition is not an option in the religiously patriarchal rural Egyptian society.
Kasem takes the reader through an elaborately descriptive tale of every step of that journey to the mausoleum and back depicting colorful and chaotic scenes of such religious celebrations which are shockingly rife with parody and perversion.
The overlapping roles of superstition and religion in the village’s life are emphasized throughout the novel as the main point of contention between the son and his family and the older generations. His painful struggle to separate myth from fact alienates him from his environment and deepens his sorrow as it forces him into directions which he did not choose but were rather a product of fear and a sense of duty.
Kasem exposes the conflicts and emotional battles that define the nature of relationships in this family and rural Egyptian families as a whole and the leading role myths and magic play in their lives. He also magnifies, without exaggeration, the laws that govern the segregated roles of men and women and their perception of each other.
The descriptive nature of this novel can be overwhelming for readers who seek more dialogue than depiction. But if you are seeking cultural and social insights and meticulous attention to every detail of every character and every place, this book is saturated with such qualities.
