About him who raises a stone in his home is the sixth of novelist Al-Taher Sharqawi's creative works, produced over the last ten years: he is prolific. Sharqawi's first book was a collection of short stories entitled Old men sitting on benches, published by Nahdet Misr in 2010. This was followed by his first novel, Vanilla, published by Sharqiyat. The present, 124-page novel is among the latest publications of Al-Kotob Khan. What does this productivity denote in this case? A keenness to develop a certain style, to trace different ideas, or to surprise the reader with crazy characters? Reading the 16-chapter novel, one finds it undeniably enjoyable -- the effect is instant. It explores a unique cast characters who manage to engage the reader. Then again, a few chapters later, I found myself lost in a dreamland of strange creations. This intended delude leaves the reader wondering about the genre of the book; indeed each chapter could be considered as a separate short story. The only link, it seems, is the main character and the continuous feeling of surging forward without bearings. The novel tells the story of a young man, a freelance creative writer who lives all by himself in a small apartment in one of the crowded neighbourhoods in Cairo. The reader knows very little about his face or body features. However, as you carry on reading the novel, his character begins to emerge: Sayed is a young man overpowered by isolation, loneliness, depression and absurdity. “I am expecting something new to happen in my life, something that never happened before. I am expecting this thing.” This seems to be one of the clues to his weird character. The events start with a loud, disturbing telephone ringing -- it is his girlfriend Serene. Though her voice is cheerful enough, he feels as if she woke him from a long dream, one that will go on to the last page of the book. Sharqawy's description of the hero's neighbourhood, the characters and buildings, his own building and the opposite street, surrounded by short and fat trees with thick and dusty leaves is par excellence. Apart from Serene, other characters are usually referred to by Mr or Mrs followed by an initial; they seem odd, fragmentary and vague: the vampire who appears in the second chapter and then reappears later is a good example of this. “While I was leaving the café, I met the vampire in one of the side streets; he dragged my hand, leading me to a near-by café, without giving me a chance to make excuses not to go. He was smiling cordially to my stuttered objections, insisting, ‘You will definitely join me, I know you will.'” There is no description of the vampire or justification for his behaviour. The stone, which is a pivotal character, as the title of the novel suggests, is perfectly illustrated. On his way home, before climbing the stairs to his flat, the hero hears a husky voice, “Hey, you!” He initially thinks it is a child playing a hide-and-seek game outside the building, but it turns out to be a small brown and dusty stone lying beside the fence. “A chocolate-coloured stone, that looks like a small watermelon” is how he describes it. “I lifted the stone and carried it to my apartment. First I put it on the chair and started to stare at it, thinking of the right place for it: shall I put it on my desk or on the floor in the middle of the reception hall? And then I realised that it needed a shower, so I held it carefully in my palms, put it in the sink and opened the tap, letting water wash the dust accumulated on its surface, so that its chocolate colour could shine clearly.” At this point the writer starts to tell the tale of his infatuation with stones, and his odd attitudes with his new stone, treating it almost as if it were a new family member. Actually this is one part of the novel particularly liked: the interaction between the lonely young man and the stone is uniquely funny, a kind of weird yet comic tale. Although the hallucination and the dreamy atmosphere of the novel should yield some funny scenes, the writer oetherwise failed to draw a smile on my face. As for Serene, the other main character in the novel, her very being is doubtful. We share the writer's speculation as to whether she is a real person or not, if they have ever met or not, and if this is all a part of his own carefully constructed dream? She keeps disappearing, exactly as people come and go in your dreams without any reason or excuse, creating a thin yet strong bond to the dreamy web of his world, weaved perfectly, but without passion. Serene's love of cactus and her relentless effort to persuade Sayed to grow some in his balcony, gives some flesh and bone to this vague character. Yet her insistence that Sayed should go to see a psychiatrist just because his answer to most of her questions is “I have no clue” is somewhat forced and silly, however. In the seventh chapter, we are faced once again with the vampire, whom Sayed suddenly meets while hanging around downtown streets. Yet again, the vampire acts slowly, never disturbs the reader, generating no interest to trace this unnecessary and unjustified character. “Vampires are fond of wandering around the streets like me, chasing and flirting with girls… You could meet them in cafes and cinemas. They are well-dressed, they always look elegant, always smiling and keeping their shoes clean and shiny. They are never bothered by the scorching sun and yet whenever they finish their job in the main streets, they go back to the side streets…” The following chapter depicts the hero's desire to experience death in what could be a faint link with the sudden appearance of the vampire. To add to his misery and his forced isolation, the hero pledges silence. “I will keep quiet in order to listen to the voice of the world; my grave is my own world.” The following day, he finds himself in a graveyard. Everything around him looks familiar: people and streets that he happened to meet before. Then the boring question is raised again, “Do I live in a dream?” The reader's instant answer might be “Yes, dear, you are dreaming `– please wake up!” The events of the novel happen very slowly; it is as if you are moving in one vicious circle or stepping forward one step only to step back two. Time is definitely not one of the pivotal factors that influence the structure. The writer's use of colloquial language is limited, which is not bad in itself; yet mixing colloquial with classic Arabic in many cases looks odd, especially when he refers to a message his girlfriend sent to his phone or relevant events that typically require the vernacular. The novel lacks a new writing technique, a new style; however, the language is appealing and encourages you to go on reading. The novel ends with a fantastic scene: the hero suddenly realises that he is obsessed with cats, and decides to draw kittens all over his apartment walls. With the cats that inhibit his walls, and the stones scattered on the floor, the writer paints a peculiar scene, where loneliness is the real protagonist. In front of the bathroom mirror, Sayed attempts to do some vocal training to bring his voice life, making it more vibrant, since his sleepy tone confuses all his friends when they talk to him over the phone. Surprisingly enough, the novel, which won the first prize of the Cairo International Book Fair this year, was written during 2010-2012, at a time when Egypt was pregnant with revolution. It was indeed a forced isolation that yielded such lonesome fruit.
