Featured Review: The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz
Reviewed by JoAnn S.
The Thief and the Dogs, by Nobel prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, is a narrative account of a man’s quest for revenge. Mahran, a professional thief and revolutionary anarchist, stole from the rich to benefit the poor and had been imprisoned for four years. After being released, he went to visit his wife who had divorced him and married a man whom he considered beneath him. His daughter rejected him, and his former mentor disavowed him. He began his revenge against the new husband and his former mentor (the dogs), but killed two innocent victims instead.
He acted according to the principles he had adopted and determinedly employed to protest the existing Egyptian government. But his actions did not further his cause, and he became a hunted fugitive, despised by the people. He sought refuge with a sheikh, a holy man, whom both he and his father revered. But the sheikh gave him little solace and gave him no discernible spiritual help.
Mahfouz sought to explore the disparities between and among the realms of action, rhetoric, and morality. Much of the stream-of-consciousness narrative revealed the thoughts of a tortured man trying to impose his spite on the unsympathetic minds and lives of his associates and the people he loved. The story was both a psychological and political study. The plot moved quickly, and I eagerly anticipated his awakening to the horror of his misdeeds. But it would be a disservice to the readers to say more.
To read more about Mahfouz, click on this link:
http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/literature/1988a.html
