I’m not a literature
critic… also, I’m not one of those working or engaged in Egyptian literary
movement… attending its forums… making friendships with its pioneers… whether
poets, story-tellers, novelists and critics… however, I have a good
relationship with some of them due to my interest in the public affairs… also,
due to my profession as a journalist responsible for managing a place where
some of those innovative people work and cooperate with… so, to risk and write
about a literary work… it’s a step with unsafe consequences as I will not be
able to present a critical analysis regarding the novel structure, developing
of characters, language along with its wording and meanings, images and
imagination included in these images… and so to the rest of what I don’t know
very well!
As to risk, only
coincidence lies behind… that coincidence that plays a role in our public and
also private lives… sometimes, science can provide an explanation for this
coincidence, its mechanism and how to be effective without past preparation…
By coincidence, I was
invited by my friend, Dr. Gammal Hassan, Psychiatry consultant in the United
Kingdom – and a family friend too since she was studying in the faculty of
medicine at Ain Shams University – to attend the discussion of her new novel
titled “Port-Fouad 1973”… I have already attended the discussion of another
novel she wrote before… when I accepted the invitation, I felt like I want to
participate in discussing the novel that talk about the War of Attrition and
the victory of 1973 War since I’m one of those interested in both history and
politics. So, I had the risk and went to Masr el-Gedida library and
participated with my friends Mr. Muhammed el-Shafei and Mr. Shaaban Youssef in
a gathering attended by great military leaders who also participated in the
great national epic at that time and through all ages… some of them exceeded
eighties but also were resisting time and age!
Few weeks ago, I
received from my friend Mr. Amr Kamal Hamouda, oil expert and professor of
economic studies, his second novel titled “as-Semsar” or the broker… I read it
unstopping overwhelmed by all those information which combined facts and
imagination together! Both Dr. Nassar Abdallah and Dr. Salah Fadl have already written
their reviews about the novel of as-Semsar… and here I am finding myself
compelled to transfer to the reader of Al Ahram newspaper a scene that affected
me deeply in this novel and there is no way to hide it…
History facts depicting
the era extending from 1967 to 2011 have turned into a narrated literature…
Human talents have excelled in braiding reality with imagination… in visualizing
all those events to make them alive, interacting and affecting… very finely
depicted in lines written over papers…
In my opinion, if those
who participated either in the battlefield or in the mire of corruption and
tyranny have not entered history through historians – so that the first would
occupy the most sacred place and the latter would linger in its hell bottom –
they would definitely have entered history through narrated literature or even
epic poetry!
I have lived with those
armed forces Egyptian heroes and witnessed the microscopic facts of fighting
against the enemy along the frontline in Suez canal and behind inside Sinai…in
an elegant analyzing way… only mastered by one who has studied Anatomy in the
faculty of medicine and have dived deep in the human nature due to the
profession as a Psychiatry consultant… Gammal Hassan could attract an easily-bored
man like myself to go on focusing completely with the fighting heroes… with
Port-Saed-inhabited sailors… with the social interaction of the middle-class…
with the journals of the War of Attrition… with manifestations of the historical
law of “challenge and response” created by Arnold Toynbee and who chose our
legendary Egypt to be the model verifying his law… with deep-in-the-heart
air-raids… with drowning down the see-fighter Eilat… with the 39 fighting group
and the extraordinary hero Ibrahim el-Rafaa’i!
In “Port-Fouad 1973”…
the novel of Gammal Hassan telling the story of her brother, the special forces
officer along with his leaders, colleagues and soldiers… you can see how brave
Egypt fought from defeat to victory… exerting sweat, blood and souls… dressed
in honor, sacrifice, knowledge, training and innovation… and having the
greatest principles and manners of humankind…
In the novel of
“as-Semsar” or the broker for Amr Kamal Hamouda, you see Egypt taken down to
fall in the mire of selfishness, self-interest, looting, stealing, cunning
shrewdness, subordination, and the regional and international alliance
insisting on breaking our beloved country and to empty it from all morals and
gains achieved after the great October victory in 1973 and all the wars,
legends, and efforts exerted by the Egyptian army and all classes of people!
Can you imagine how big
and deep that coincidence is?... two extinguished novels provide an analysis
for a time period extending from the War of Attrition and October War through
Infitah, stealing and looting and finally reaching the January 25th,
2011 revolution… and both novelists belong to the same generation…
Another amazing paradox
is that both of them – meaning Dr. Gammal Hassan and Mr. Amr Kamal Hamouda –
are not working or specialized in literature as the first is a physician and a
Psychiatry professor working in Britain where she moves back and forth from and
back to Egypt, while the latter is an accountant, economist, and oil and
feasibility studies expert. However, both – and I know them both – have agreed
on one thing; real interest in the affairs of our beloved country… both belong
to the Egyptian left nationalist ideology, in the broad meaning of the word
left and not only the reformist part…
Both of them have lived
the era the two novels are narrating… even if each adopted a different angle to
tackle events… where Dr. Gammal was more close to the Nasserist nationalist and
Arab nationalist ideology… while Mr. Amr was more close to the Marxist
nationalist ideology… but both of them is a patriot Egyptian loving his
country… they belong to this country before they belong to any other ideology…
they both tackled the country’s crises and were close to the nation’s history
fluctuating between its top peaks “resistance – war – victory”… and its bottom
peaks “negotiations – Camp David treaty – Infitah – corruption – tyranny”!
I have lived with the
characters of both novels and saw those who still alive of the legendary heroes
of Port-Fouad 1973… I also claim that I have known some characters of
“as-Semsar”… either directly or through the time I had before with the author
himself … and however Mr. Amr Hamouda hasn’t mentioned the real names of the
main characters of his novel, I believe the facts are well known for most of
those who have witnessed the scene of tyranny and corruption mire… also those
who sat to the author, became friends with him and knew his suffering… they may
also have a clue about the real identity of those people… because I don’t know
if we can call the corrupt, traitor, accomplice and thief a hero… even if in a
novel work?!
The author of as-Semsar
has shed light on some specific differences between Egypt’s contemporary
history time periods; meaning after July, 1952… For example, “Montaser”… that civilian who was
attracted to work in intelligence… was a highly-sophisticated intellectual
acquainted and updated about the western culture and also affected by that
culture like the book of Foucher… we can notice that Machiavelli is nothing but
a pupil dressed in short-pants in the pragmatic profiteering school established
by those representing the symbols of corruption and tyranny mire in the novel
of as-Semsar…
Really, I don’t know
while I’m writing these lines if I am committing a violation to the traditions of
writing a novel… or even if it’s a deed punished by law if I disclosed the
names I am dead sure are the real names of the novel characters… At least, the
name of the vice-president who became a president… the name of intelligence
chief… name of defense minister… in addition to other names. Moreover, I have
more stories to tell that were not mentioned in the novel itself and that were
told to me by the author himself… whether in his countryside, coastal or Cairo
residences…
For example, the fact
that Montaser, the broker or “Semsar”; the main character in the novel, has
practically and financially exploited the closest people to him; that is his
nephew… whom he didn’t hesitate to teach the profiteering culture he masters
while the man was still young at that time… he kept teaching him that whoever
wants to achieve his goals, he shall stay loyal to the power itself and never
look to who is in power no matter who he is… as the golden rule to him was to
worship power and consequently the one in power!
Some who are interested
in documenting history may think that the two novels may lack details or
include details different to the actual events that took place at that time…
but who said they should… since they are not history books… however, they both
represent an elite work of literature where history, sociology, military,
economy, psychology, geography and demography are braided together in a
literary style… the one I can’t discuss its techniques because I’m not a critic
or specialized in literary studies.
I’m not exaggerating if
I said that the two works and the nature of the two authors are signs that a
long-awaited renaissance in Egypt’s soft power is on the way.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on July 14, 2016.
To
see the original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Portfouad1973 #Gammal_hassan #assemsar
#amr_kamal_hammouda
No comments:
Post a Comment