A complex tale of love, loss, and human desire, set against the emergence of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s new Egypt, unfolds effortlessly in Bahaa Taher’s “As Doha Said.
Bahaa Taher won the first International Prize for Arabic Fiction, known as the Arabic Booker Prize, in March 2008 for his novel “Sunset Oasis. One of the most notable contemporary Arabic writers, Taher’s contribution to Arabic literature has spanned decades and his work has been translated into over 10 languages.
The short novel – originally published in 1985 and is now available in a new print published by the American University in Cairo Press – is as engaging as it is edifying, enticing the reader to think about myriad of intertwined themes, including love, political ideology and betrayal. The themes are subtly revealed, allowing readers the choice to consider them at their leisure.
The novel begins in the 1960s, the day after the first nationalization decrees. The narrator is working in what he calls the “graveyard : the Supervisory Board for Administrative Organization, set up early in the revolution by a zealous bureaucrat to streamline ministry affairs only to be abandoned later. The protagonist is helplessly in love with his only co-worker Doha. She is a nubile enigma, and as they grow closer, his feelings for her increasingly consume him.
Against this love story, other characters emerge. Sayyid Al-Qinawi, a parking lot attendant prior to the revolution, turned office-boy, then soldier in the Yemen War, to ministry employee and Socialist Union member who represents all the hopes and dreams espoused by the revolution to the “common man. Hatem, a friend of the narrator’s from their student days, who is now the deputy director of the personnel department battling his desires for his family’s comfort against his personal ambition.
Doha and the narrator receive a grant to attend a business administration course in Italy and their tumultuous relationship reaches new heights. In Rome, Doha compares herself to the Egyptian goddess Isis and in fact, she is in the eyes of our narrator the idealized woman.
She is acutely aware of this fact and both she and the reader know this can never end well. In predictable fashion, almost as soon as the characters unite, everything falls apart.
Their happy time in Italy is overshadowed by their return to Cairo. Nasser’s program is in full swing and yet to chagrin of all the characters, they find out that nothing has changed since the days of King Farouk. All the characters become embroiled in intra-ministerial politics along with interpersonal conflicts.
As the narrator becomes a shell of his former self, he gradually succumbs to the sensuous side of his city, making a final showdown between the two characters imminent.
Taher’s stark, declarative statements are reminiscent of Hemmingway. Every character experiences the extremes of both joy and pain, and each one struggles through their desires both good and evil.
The book is punctuated by moments of emotional reflection that are at times maudlin. The constant description of the narrator’s love for Doha teeters on the edge of cloying, but somehow Taher retains a genuine emotional confusion even the most cynical reader can’t help relating to.
“I don’t understand Doha. All I know is that I love her. I don’t understand myself. I should probably stop thinking altogether, is a perfect example of a line that verges on mawkish, but in its simplicity result in a feeling of undeniable empathy.
Each character is entangled in a solitary battle for his/her own soul, but is also a metaphor for the disappointing trajectory of political visions. The rectitude of each one is tested and even the most ardent supporters of the revolution must decide what the changes have really meant.
The novel is a fast and easy read; the simple storytelling never loses its propulsive force. However, Taher has more to offer than a catchy plot and simple love story. Punctuated by moments of self-reflection, the narrator, and by proxy the reader, examines the meaning of life, the trajectory of relationships and the point of revolutionary slogans.
Taher relates the timeless insecurity of love in a particularly insecure period in Egypt’s history. Peter Daniel’s translation of the novel into English allows more readers access to another forgotten classic of Taher’s.
“As Doha Said By Bahaa TaherTranslated by Peter DanielCairo: AUC Press, 2008
