Ahdaf Soueif'sThe Map of Love is a massive family saga, a story that draws its readers into two moments in the complex, troubled history of modern Egypt. The story begins in 1977 in New York. There Isabel Parkman discovers an old trunk full of documents--some in English, some in Arabic--in her dying mother's apartment. Incapable of deciphering this stash by herself, she turns to Omar al-Ghamrawi, a man with whom she is falling in love. And Omar directs her in turn to his sister Amal in Cairo.
Together the two women begin to uncover the stories embedded in the journal of Lady Anna Winterbourne, who traveled to Egypt in 1900 and fell in love with Sharif Pasha al-Barudi, an Egyptian nationalist. To their surprise, they stumble across some unsuspected connections between their own families. Less surprising, perhaps, is the persistence of the very same issues that dogged their ancestors: colonialism, Egyptian nationalism, and the clash of cultures throughout the Middle East. The past, however, does offer some semblance of omniscience:
That is the beauty of the past; there it lies on the table: journals, pictures, a candle-glass, a few books of history. You leave it and come back to it and it waits for you--unchanged. You can turn back the pages, look again at the beginning. You can leaf forward and know the end. And you tell the story that they, the people who lived it, could only tell in part.
With its multiple narratives and ever-shifting perspectives,The Map of Love would seem to cast some doubt on even the most confident historian's version of events. Yet this subtle and reflective tale of love does suggest that the relations between individuals can (sometimes) make a difference. "I am in an English autumn in 1897," Amal confesses at one point, "and Anna's troubled heart lies open before me." Here, perhaps, is a hint about how we should read Soueif's staggering novel, using words as a means to travel through time, space, and identity.--Vicky Lebeau
A fascinating read This amazing book that deals with the intricacies involved when two people from different cultures , from nations that have different histories and directions who love another come to realize that their lives together is a challenge that is not based on love alone and that time hasn't and will never mitigate the inherent differences. This is a must read for those embracing multi-culturalism, cosmopolitanism and the global economy. One thing for sure is that this novel is a thought-provoking, socially challenging and compelling read. I highly recommend it along with:Disciples of Fortune, Sugar Street, The usurper and other Stories
wonderful, engrossing novel This novel was great. It spans two different generations. The most interesting one is of an English widow traveling to Egypt to recuperate from the death of her husband. She falls in love with Egypt and struggles to find the "real" Egypt, not the one in the English parties. The second story line follows her great granddaughter recreating her life and Egypt as a story for the millenium. Both women find romance that is a suprise. It is narrated by an recently discovered cousin, which really works.
I can't say enough about this fabulous read. The history one learns in the book is fascinating, enough that one would want to read more about the time period. The modern story isn't quite as engrossing as the 1900's story.
This lush, evocative, romantic, historical novel should deserve more than 5 stars. I didn't want the story to end, especially Anna's.superb historical novel What many of the previous reviews do not mention is that this novel gives a superb corrective to the idea that feminism in Muslim countries is an import from European cultures. I was astounded to learn that there was a strong movement in Egypt for women's rights from 1900-1919. Soueif's novel provked me to some further research, and I discovered that everything she says is true. Soueif did a remarkable amount of research for this novel, including 19th-century travel journals of both men and women and newspaper archives in Egyptian and British libraries
I sympathize with the reader who found the use of (transliterated) Arabic words difficult, but I myself found this technique delightful. I felt I was learning something of Egyptian culture as I learned bits of its language.
One other thing I found remarkable was the balance shown by Soueif in criticizing imperialistic and repressive governments no matter where they occur. If she has a political passion, it is for real democracy, and she therefore critiques post-colonial Egyptian government as much as she critiques 19th-century British colonialism and contemporary American foreign policy. She is not a nationalist but an internationalist in the best sense of the word: she wants every country to have the right to blend its culture with elements from other cultures -- but she wants each country to be able to choose those elements independently and not to have them imposed from without.
