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SONALLAH IBRAHIM Aghustus (The August Star), about the high dam, and for this novel I formulated a plan. I wanted to write about the high dam, in Aswan. I went there and stayed for three months during its construction. Every day I met people and went places. My idea was that I was in this place and everything that happened there, all of it, will be the novel. For example, what I heard on the radio – songs, news – what I read in the paper, what happened to me during the day, the people I met and talked to, how the work developed, the kinds of tools that were used, the kinds of processes used to complete the construction, for which there was a certain rhythm of digging followed by a series of actions. Then there were all the things from the past that these things brought back to my mind and the dreams I had at night. I wanted to make the novel out of all of this and I think this approach has stayed with me until now, with some changes in the precision of observation, understanding the psychology of people, changes in awareness and in technical ability, such as how to describe an object or an event- I got better at this with time. But my point of departure is still what I hear and see and what I remember and think; that’s what is fundamental. What is the role of dialect in your writing?When do you use it? I use it sometimes. It depends – sometimes yes and sometimes no. In Al-Lajna (The Committee), for example, there is not a single word of colloquial Arabic in the dialogue because the novel itself permits that, whereas in Zaat some of the expressions are in dialect. It depends on the circumstances, meaning that I don’t have a fixed rule. The basic rule is that I write in standard Arabic, in a simplified form because, well, because I like to write like that, and because it is understood from the Maghreb to Iraq. By the way, I have a novel entitled Beirut, Beirut, which is being translated right now for publication with Bloomsbury. While I was writing it, I felt the need to really feel that there was some colloquial Lebanese in the language.You know, how the Lebanese in the street will say “walak!” or something. There is a beauty in that, which I wanted to capture. How did you go about finding colloquial Lebanese? How did you research the novel? I lived there for months, a short while before the [1982] Israeli in- 46 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
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INTERVIEW BY C AMILO GOMEZ-RIVAS vasion.There was a truce and I met with people and recorded everything I could. How do you see yourself, as an Egyptian writer in the greater Arab world, in relation to countries like Lebanon, with its own experience beyond dictatorship, or to Morocco and Moroccans, who often feel themselves marginalized by Mashriqis? How do you see your relationship with readers in such places outside Egypt? I understand that there is an organic unity between the cultural elements of the region. The thing that was most crucial for me was my first visit to Morocco in 1979. I was truly surprised because I had this old image of Morocco as a place where Francophone culture “History teaches us that when a wave of progress occurs, in thought, in social conditions, in sexual relations, it incites a response.” was predominant and I was shocked when I walked through the alleyways of Fez and I saw that Egyptian songs and books were present and had a following. Then, I went to Marrakesh and was surprised to find people there who had published a special edition of my first novel, Tilka al-Ra’iha (That Smell).This was a strange surprise for me and it gave me a deeper sense of Arab nationalism and a deeper appreciation of the Arabic language. Now when I write, I keep those people in mind, not only people in Egypt, but throughout the whole region. What did you learn about writing from your early work in journalism? I learned a lot, for sure, because there is a relationship between writing fiction and journalism in its many different forms. Journalism is a collection of professions within a larger field.You can be a reporter, for example, where the emphasis is on capturing the details of an event, on precision and is an attempt to understand the situation and people’s psychological make-up. How did the accident happen?What were people wearing? Then there is re-writing and deskwork.You find the appropriate form in which to present a particular event or BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 47

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SONALLAH IBRAHIM

Aghustus (The August Star), about the high dam, and for this novel I formulated a plan. I wanted to write about the high dam, in Aswan. I went there and stayed for three months during its construction. Every day I met people and went places. My idea was that I was in this place and everything that happened there, all of it, will be the novel. For example, what I heard on the radio – songs, news – what I read in the paper, what happened to me during the day, the people I met and talked to, how the work developed, the kinds of tools that were used, the kinds of processes used to complete the construction, for which there was a certain rhythm of digging followed by a series of actions. Then there were all the things from the past that these things brought back to my mind and the dreams I had at night. I wanted to make the novel out of all of this and I think this approach has stayed with me until now, with some changes in the precision of observation, understanding the psychology of people, changes in awareness and in technical ability, such as how to describe an object or an event- I got better at this with time. But my point of departure is still what I hear and see and what I remember and think; that’s what is fundamental. What is the role of dialect in your writing?When do you use it? I use it sometimes. It depends – sometimes yes and sometimes no. In Al-Lajna (The Committee), for example, there is not a single word of colloquial Arabic in the dialogue because the novel itself permits that, whereas in Zaat some of the expressions are in dialect. It depends on the circumstances, meaning that I don’t have a fixed rule. The basic rule is that I write in standard Arabic, in a simplified form because, well, because I like to write like that, and because it is understood from the Maghreb to Iraq.

By the way, I have a novel entitled Beirut, Beirut, which is being translated right now for publication with Bloomsbury. While I was writing it, I felt the need to really feel that there was some colloquial Lebanese in the language.You know, how the Lebanese in the street will say “walak!” or something. There is a beauty in that, which I wanted to capture. How did you go about finding colloquial Lebanese? How did you research the novel? I lived there for months, a short while before the [1982] Israeli in-

46 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

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