What We're Reading

Black Magic

Author: Hamdy el-Gazzar
Translator: Humphrey Davies
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
$18.95 Cloth (186 p.)
ISBN: 9789774161049
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Reviewed by Sarah Buck, Continuations

At first, this new translation of Black Magic is difficult to read, yet after getting used to it, the reader is carried along by its surrealism and beauty. The author uses magnificent imagery and symbolism throughout the book, and carefully layers character development, plot, and themes of existentialism with great skill.

The story is about Nasir, a bachelor photographer in Cairo and his love affair with an older divorcee. The book is full of passion, but told with a vacant voice reminiscent of Camus' L'Etranger. The translation is stunning, and I do wish I could read Arabic because the words Humphrey Davies uses are captivating.

The narrative voice shows a keen understanding of relationships and speaks with brutal honesty. The reader is taken with his insight into the blossoming stages of a new romance and the carefully managed thoughts and plans Nasir makes in order to preserve his heart from pain. I especially liked his understanding that we often project qualities onto new lovers that they may not possess at all, simply because we are swept away by ourselves.

There are some steamy passages in this book and I'm amazed by the author's clear interpretation of the folly of carnal behavior. The author is at times overly descriptive, but while my attention span can only take so much of water boiling over, another reader might draw great philosophical significance from it.

Clearly this is a debut work. The author's treatment of minor characters lacks wholeness compared to the honesty with which the protagonist is depicted. I believe that el-Gazzar will become a great writer (not that Black Magic isn't great - it won the 2006 Sawiris Foundation Prize for Egyptian Literature), and he will look back on this book and cringe at its sophomoric style.

There is an evolution in the book with just enough foreshadowing to show the decline of Nasir's infatuation with the divorcee. He begins describing her as supple, firm, and beautiful, but by the end of the story she is wrinkled, grey haired, and beautiful. This layering of story-telling, coupled with the existential themes packed into the story (among many existentialist passages there is an incredible scene of a weaver who un-does his day's work every evening only to begin again the next day - an Egyptian version of the myth of Sisyphus), makes the book valuable for literary scholars and students of philosophy.

I recommend this book for its wonderful imagery, symbolism, and irony. Overall, the book is well crafted, with a beautiful ending that rings with those questions posed therein about the human condition.