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BOOKS I N BR I E F of a pen-box, to an account of Middle-Eastern astronomy inspired by an astrolabe, this stylish book showcases some of the museum’s finest pieces, and offers fascinating insights into the Islamic world from a diverse range of people. Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, Doha, 2011, hbk, pp255, ISBN: 978-999-214-260-8. FC. Cairo: My City, Our Revolution is Ahdaf Soueif's memoir of her experience of Cairo’s explosive 2011. The book emphasises the reader’s perspective as a future observer: “Whatever shape Egypt is in as you’re reading now, this is the story of some of the moments that got us there.” The style is pleasantly journalistic and elegantly structured. Soueif’s narrative finishes as it starts, in diary form, with “The Eighteen Days Resumed” describing the manic atmosphere of Egypt’s first days of 21st-century revolution. A stylistic criticism is Soueif’s decision to adopt a new digitised form of transliteration, with numbers rather than hyphens for Arabic letters, so the “people” of the historic chant, “al-sha’ab yurid isqat al-nizam”, is written “sha3b”.This use of numbers distracts the reader, but it is a minor irritation in a book that is an important addition to literature on the Egyptian revolution. Bloomsbury, 2012. 203pp, hbk, ISBN 9780747549628. £14.99. BG. Immigrant Narratives by Waïl S. Hassan analyses Arab American and Arab British literature from the early twentieth century until today, examining the works of Rihany, Gibran, Haddad and Soueif, among others. The writers are analysed within the context of Said’s theorisation of Orientalism, and Deleuze and Guattari’s formulation of “minor literature”. Hassan views the writers as “cultural translators” whose “position represents a merger of the two classic stances of the native informant and the foreign expert” (p29). Particularly interesting is his final chapter “Queering Orientalism” on the work of Ramzi Salti and Rabih Alameddine. As Hassan notes, literature in English by Arab immigrants is little known and this work provides an important addition to post-colonial studies. Oxford UP, USA, 2011 259pp, hbk, ISBN 978019979206. £40. CB. 220 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

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BOOKS I N BR I E F

of a pen-box, to an account of Middle-Eastern astronomy inspired by an astrolabe, this stylish book showcases some of the museum’s finest pieces, and offers fascinating insights into the Islamic world from a diverse range of people. Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, Doha, 2011, hbk, pp255, ISBN: 978-999-214-260-8. FC.

Cairo: My City, Our Revolution is Ahdaf Soueif's memoir of her experience of Cairo’s explosive 2011. The book emphasises the reader’s perspective as a future observer: “Whatever shape Egypt is in as you’re reading now, this is the story of some of the moments that got us there.” The style is pleasantly journalistic and elegantly structured. Soueif’s narrative finishes as it starts, in diary form, with “The Eighteen Days Resumed” describing the manic atmosphere of Egypt’s first days of 21st-century revolution. A stylistic criticism is Soueif’s decision to adopt a new digitised form of transliteration, with numbers rather than hyphens for Arabic letters, so the “people” of the historic chant, “al-sha’ab yurid isqat al-nizam”, is written “sha3b”.This use of numbers distracts the reader, but it is a minor irritation in a book that is an important addition to literature on the Egyptian revolution. Bloomsbury, 2012. 203pp, hbk, ISBN 9780747549628. £14.99. BG.

Immigrant Narratives by Waïl S. Hassan analyses Arab American and

Arab British literature from the early twentieth century until today, examining the works of Rihany, Gibran, Haddad and Soueif, among others. The writers are analysed within the context of Said’s theorisation of Orientalism, and Deleuze and Guattari’s formulation of “minor literature”. Hassan views the writers as “cultural translators” whose “position represents a merger of the two classic stances of the native informant and the foreign expert” (p29). Particularly interesting is his final chapter “Queering Orientalism” on the work of Ramzi Salti and Rabih Alameddine. As Hassan notes, literature in English by Arab immigrants is little known and this work provides an important addition to post-colonial studies. Oxford UP, USA, 2011 259pp, hbk, ISBN 978019979206. £40. CB.

220 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

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