Literati, socialites and fans gathered to celebrate novelist Mohamed Salmawy’s latest release, “Isadora wal otobees (Ezedora and the Bus) at the Grand Cairo Library last week.
The event took place as part of the Egyptian Association of Comparative Literature meeting, hosted by Salmawy.
Literary critics Hamed Abo Ahmed, Aymen Temma and Salah Al Salwey kicked off the evening by sharing their thoughts on the book.
“Isadora and the Bus – published byAl-Massriya-Al-Lubnaniya – is comprised of 16 different short stories the veteran writer and journalist has compiled throughout his career.
Though a rich, multilayered piece, “Isadora and the Bus is an affable work with themes and ideas that strongly resonate in present-day Egyptian society.
Preferring not to submit an explicit commentary on his work, Salmawy, who told Daily News Egypt that “a true artwork should be self-explanatory, opened the evening with a reading of “Alo, one of the book’s short stories written in the form of a telephone call.
“The writer doesn’t always know what he writes, Salmawy said. “Because any artwork is a conscious and unconscious process, and here comes the importance of the critic who delves into the work and reveals its hidden features.
Being editor-in-chief of the French weekly Al-Ahram Hebdo, a popular columnist, the head of the Egyptian Writers Union, and a novelist writing in three different languages, Salmawy has left an indelible mark on Egyptian contemporary literature with works that go back to 1983 with “The Man Who Regained his Memory, his first collection of short stories.
In addition to his strong, well-known political stance on regional issues and his outspoken views, his literary work is rife with visionary anecdotes and surreal images, while his texts vary in style between narrative storytelling and magical realism.
“Isadora is not only endowed with a retrospective of Salmawy’s prose, it presents an assortment of literary genres that varies from realism to fiction and from narrative to symbolism, encapsulating a significant anthology of work that evokes human thought and experience.
Over the course of 200 pages, the reader embarks on a journey that begins with the mythological love of “Isadora and Habbi and ends with the melancholic “Jihad Al Mesahraty.
Ranging from love memoirs to political criminology, this literary thoroughfare contains an array of anecdotes that act as a throwback to old myths, historical incidents, daily struggles and political games. Not only does it sculpt a factual image of Egyptian society and the Arab world, it also tackles universal issues of human existence.
“Truth and unpretentiousness highlights these set of stories, literary critic Ramadan Bastawisy told Daily News Egypt.
The first story in the book, ” Isadora and Habbi is an unusual chef-d’oeuvre. In a straight narrative form, Salmawy chronicles how he came across Isadora’s myth during a visit to the Minya governorate. The story then shifts to a poetic form, as the two lovers start narrating their tale to the author.
Salmawy s knack for experimenting with conventional plot forms is even more evident in “Bab Al Tawfik: A Local Sonata in Three Movements. The story is written in the form of a musical composition divided into three parts.
The stories are charged with concepts and different thematic references such as the humanization of objects, love and death, urban alienation, the conflict between private and public interest, and the longing for a utopia.
The book ends with a mull over the Palestinian martyrs and war warriors in a number of stories that include “Wafaa Edreess, “Mohamed Al Dora and His Red Car and “Jihad Al Mesahraty.
“Evoking the myth was a palpable thread in this set of stories. There is a search for what forms a dogma or faith that might lead to self sacrifice; commenting that the death of the myth makes it more alive, explains Bastawisy.
“With clarity and skill, Salmawy was able to escape the trap of formalization, writing about human inquiries and experiences, he continued. “Like Hermes and Gabriel Marquez, he was able to reproduce the old heritage and myth, introducing it with new aesthetics.
What makes “Isadora and the Bus a rich reading experience is how it encloses a copious amount of literary forms and plots molded and rendered by an unconventional author with an exceptional ability to master his art and switch between different languages.
