Ashraf Sadek
Master storyteller Alaa al-Aswani, the author of best sellers The Yacoubian Building and Chicago, has made it again with his new Arabic novel The Automobile Club, which portrays the turbulent life of the Egyptians during the mid-1940s through a sophisticated plot that involves an elaborate chain of local and foreign characters.
As usual, the dentist-cum-novelist’s latest work is a page-turning thriller about an up-stairs and a down-stairs Egypt, where the Automobile Club is an orgy of hatred between the foreign masters, who ran it for their interests, and the local waiters, who had no rights in their own country.
As the novel’s fast events begin to unfold, al-Aswani cleverly introduces his poor Egyptian club workers and their families who are either residents of Cairo, or migrants from Aswan and Nubia. All the waiters, led by their greedy boss, have been exploited to carry out one and only mission in their miserable lives: serving the rich club members and accept the non-stop humiliation by their ruthless Nubian master, el-Kawwy, the chief butler of the royal palaces and a personal protégé of King Farouq, who was also a servant to his British occupiers.
The main foreign characters of the story are led by the Club’s racist British manager, James Right, who despises and hates the Egyptian waiters, whom he dismisses as “dirty, lazy, unfaithful and unethical servants, who will never be as civilised and productive as the white man”.
However, Mr Right, who laments working with the Egyptians and living in their “backward” country, cannot take a daring decision to return to his “civilised” Britain. The club, which symbolises an occupied Egypt, is a goldmine for him, his wife Victoria and their rebellious daughter, who despises him because of his unethical attitudes towards the Egyptians.
Al-Aswani, a political activist and member of the main National Salvation Front (NSF) opposition group, has produced a solid novel that gives a detailed and interesting portrait of each one of his characters. It provides insight into the secret world of waiters, the royal family members, as well as conveying a socio-anthropological view about the Egyptians and their country after the end of World War II
He has used the characters of The Automobile Club to take his readers to a long but a sad journey through a life that has been harsh on the Egyptians, who – as a result – turned bestial because they were living under a foreign occupation and a corrupt regime.
Like a spider, al-Aswani has intelligently trapped his readers into a well-woven web-like novel, whose post WWII events are similar to the same deplorable political and economic conditions that existed in the country prior to the January 25 Revolution and led the Egyptians to revolt against their corrupt masters.
In his simple language, al-Aswani draws with words a detailed portrait of each one of the characters of his 644-page novel with whom the reader builds an immediate love or hatred relationship.
Take for example, the selfish British club manager, Mr Right, who was not always right because of his hypocrisy when it came to views and beliefs about the Egyptians.
As the fast paced events of novel move ahead, readers find out that Mr. Right himself is even worse than the Egyptians, whom he despises because he pimps his own daughter Maisie to King Farouq in return for some personal gains. He cheats on his wife, Victoria, steals items from the club like the waiters he manages, covers up the brutal murder of the club’s dignified old storekeeper Abdel-Aziz Hamam by el-Kawwy, and ignores the systematic abuses against the poor waiters.
The story ends when the waiters, led by a courageous young waiter and a liberal university student, revolt against the Club managers and kill the tyrant el-Kawwy, who had been humiliating them and usurping their money for many years through the help and approval of the British manager and the servant-like King.
Al-Aswani’s latest work is a worth reading novel. Its innovative and well-oiled plot unveils the deep secrets of the Egyptian society to Arabic-speaking readers, who will enjoy a spiced up story about an up-stairs and a down-stairs country that was ruled by the Automobile Club and its corrupt managers. However, potential readers should be aware that it contains a lot of expletives.
The Automobile Club, Alaa al-Aswani, Dar al-Shorouq, 2013, LE40.
Only available in Arabic at present, I strongly recommend its translation into English.
