Your Egypt

[Winky]

For Bread Alone


has been a literary phenomenon for over fifty years. Have you read it?

You might have seen it in French, Arabic, English, perhaps in a country where it is banned
This book will be republished by Telegrambooks in July
you can pick up your copy in the UK or order it ahead here :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1846590108/qid%3D1150601699/sr%3D8-1/ref%3Dsr%5F8%5Fxs%5Fap%5Fi1%5Fxgl/026-3516963-6456437


AN EXCERPT :arrow:
She untied the sash of her pyjamas and pulled off the jacket like a bird getting ready to fly. The whiteness of her skin burst forth. Again she turns and looks around. She is not in a hurry. She seems to be listening for something. I am overcome by anxiety. One fig falls out of my hand, and the one in my mouth suddenly goes down my throat. The basket leans to one side, and half the figs fall out.

the story goes on here :arrow:
http://www.telegrambooks.com/archives/for_bread_alone/for_bread_alone_excerpts/#000064#more










For Bread Alone is autobiographical. After a childhood of poverty and petty crime, Choukri learned how to read and write at the age of 20
after a bout in prison. He then became a teacher and writer, finally being awarded the chair of Arabic Literature at Ibn Batuta College in Tangier. Choukri died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 64. His life is now captured in a film where Choukri himself makes a brief appearance.


The book itself was banned in Arab countries for its sexual explicitness. Dar al-Saqi was the first publishing house to publish it in Arabic in 1982, thirty years after it was written, though many translations came out before the Arabic version.



Mohamed Choukri is one of North Africa's most controversial and widely read authors. After a childhood of poverty and petty crime, Choukri learned how to read and write at the age of 20, after a bout in prison. He then became a teacher and writer, finally being awarded the chair of Arabic Literature at Ibn Batuta College in Tangier. Choukri died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 64.



http://www.telegrambooks.com/archives/for_bread_alone/


A true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact.
-Tennessee Williams

[alna]

I’ve read it. It is a deeply moving story and even more when you know it is autobiographical.
I’ve found some similar subjects to other Moroccan books: characters with identical problems (they have to suffer great hardships to find their identity), or who try to deliver themselves from their father (who is represented as a tyrant), or who try to find a sense to their life.
These themes, this violence and loneliness affect me deeply that’s why I find this book so beautiful.

The second part of his autobiography “zenen el akhtaa” is by the way very interesting too

[Winky]

alna wrote: I’ve read it. It is a deeply moving story and even more when you know it is autobiographical.
I’ve found some similar subjects to other Moroccan books: characters with identical problems (they have to suffer great hardships to find their identity), or who try to deliver themselves from their father (who is represented as a tyrant), or who try to find a sense to their life.
These themes, this violence and loneliness affect me deeply that’s why I find this book so beautiful.

The second part of his autobiography “zenen el akhtaa” is by the way very interesting too


But he is not appreciated by everybody Alna :? due to the frankness he used when he wrote down his personal story he broke quite a few taboos
and consequently outraged many religious people in the Arab world


His main works will be the autobiographic trilogy,
For bread alone, followed by
Zaman Al-Akhtaâ aw Al-Shouttar (Time of Mistakes or the streetwise)

For bread alone was controversially removed from the syllabus of a modern Arabic Literature course at the American University in Cairo in 2005, due to some sexual explicits writings, prompting some observers to criticize the "ban" and blame government censorship. The incident may, however, have been a result of more complex factors, with a report later saying that the problems "are compounded in many areas of campus life by intimidation from Islamist militants, which the government does little to prevent"

A quote from

Quote: There's, in the moroccan society, a more conservative faction. Those people judge my works as depraved. In my books, there's nothing againts the regime. I don't talk about politics or religion. But, what annoy's the conservatives, is to notice that I criticize my father. The father is sacred in the arabic-muslim society

[alna]

Winky wrote: But he is not appreciated by everybody Alna :? due to the frankness he used when he wrote down his personal story he broke quite a few taboos
and consequently outraged many religious people in the Arab world


and i can understand why some people feel outraged by this book. But sometimes it seems more serious and grave to write about misery than to live it! :?

The most interesting for me due to many aspects is the description of his relation with his father.