Research Catalog

The committee : a novel

Title: The committee : a novel / Sunʻallah Ibrahim ; translated from the Arabic by Mary St. Germain and Charlene Constable.
Author: Ibrāhīm, Ṣunʻ Allāh.
Publication: Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2001.

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Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	PJ7838.B7173 L313 2001	Off-site

Additional Authors

Description

166 pages; 19 cm.

Summary

"Sun'allah Ibrahim has been called the Egyptian Kafka. And no wonder, this wry take on Kafka's The Trial revolves around its narrator's attempts to petition successfully the elusive ruling body of his country, known simply as "the Committee." Consequences for his actions range from the absurd to the hideous.".
"In Kafkaesque fashion - an intriguingly symbolic and minimalist style - Ibrahim offers an unbroken first-person narrative rendered in brief, crisp prose framed by a conspicuous absence of vivid imagery. Furthermore, the petitioner is a man without identity. The ideal antihero, he remains, as does his country, unnamed throughout the intricate plot with a locale suggestive of 1970s Cairo.".
"The Committee sardonically pierces the inflammatory terrain between ordinary men, unbridled displays of power, and other broader concerns of the author's native Egypt. The novel's corrosive, shocking conclusion catapults satiric surrealism into a new realm."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Middle East literature in translation

Uniform Title

Alternative Title

Lajnah.

ISBN

0815607261 (alk. paper)

LCCN

2001049680

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries