In the final chapter, the interrogator comes into the café, having spent three years in prison after being arrested following the Egyptian embarrassment in the Six Day War. When he enters the café, he is immediately recognized by Isma'il and, in turn, recognizes the students. Despite that, he announces his intent to become one of the café's regulars. He sees no conflict or reason to preclude him, believing that what transpired in Egypt left "all of us both criminals and victims." Although he becomes a regular, we do not hear his version of the specific events recounted by Isma'il and Zaynab. Regardless, the final chapter leaves little doubt a wide spectrum of Egyptian society entered the 1970s disappointed and disillusioned.
As translator Roger Allen points out in his excellent afterword, Karnak Café examines much that went dreadfully wrong with Egyptian society following the revolution and in and after the Six Day War. The afterword certainly helps the reader place the novel in the proper setting and context, which to some extent argues for it being a preface instead. Regardless, the focus here is on the story itself, one which Mahfouz never permits to become a tirade. Rather, the book adroitly explores the idea of a loss of faith, purity and innocence suffered by Egyptians almost entirely without regard for their political views. Equally as impressive — yet a sad commentary on the human condition — Mahfouz does so in a way that leaves the book perhaps universally and perpetually relevant.
Article comments
1 - James Phillips
My students are reading KARNAK CAFE this semester and one of my students is a young woman from Cairo who never heard of the 1952 Revolution until she read about it from the book. She also found an Arabic language film version and discussed the differences between the story and film. Unfortunately, no sub-titled versions in English were found. The author is very character driven and second language learners can learn alot from world literature in translation.