The red rooster's head is the strange title of a collection of short stories published by Al-Kotobkhan in 2012, which includes 16 stories by Ahmed El-Khamisi. All were written in the last two years, and the most obvious feature they share is the wit and sarcasm with which they capture day-to-day life. The author (b. 1948) had published three collections of short stories that prefigure this work. The reader can see features El-Khamisi shares with the late master of the short story Youssef Edriss. Simplicity and economy of means are particularly clear aspects of this writing: there are no complicated plotlines, sophisticated characters or descriptions of place; the characters appear with a short introduction, as if the reader should know them from another occasion. The incidents are familiar, yet they suggest new keys to a better understanding of human life. El-Khamisi is the son of the late poet Abdel-Rahman El-Khamisi, and as such has had a high-brow career path: he published his first short story, “Longing”, in 1965 in Al-Qissa magazine, then edited by the prominent writer Mahmoud Taymour; he was introduced by Edriss himself in Al-Kateb magazine a year later. His first collection of short stories, Dreams, Birds, Carnival was published in 1967. El-Khamisi is also a screenwriter; his first script, Respectable Families, was screened as early as 1968. He is also a prolific translator, having published 15 books of translation in various fields. “The Red Rooster's Head”, the first story in this book, depicts – in vivid detail – the slaughtering of a rooster: beheaded, its body shaking at the killer's feet, eyes following the trail of blood from the fridge door – where the head is placed. The two-and-a-half-page story depicts the victim in slow motion, with the striking image of the headless body still walking. Published in Al-Dostour newspaper in 2012, it is easy to read this story as a reflection on Egypt after the 25 January revolution. The red head yearns for the past, a time when his early-morning scream woke up the villagers, when he was surrounded and followed by hens. The writer's depiction, along parallel lines, of the head and the body makes for an interesting reading of the metaphor. For suddenly, the body manages to flee. Its wings flapping in the air, the rooster rushes to an open window and flies to freedom. The head, regaining its fading blaze, overhearing the sound of its own wings in the distance, wonders, “Oh, it is me without myself. How did all this happen?” This line, with which the brilliant short story ends, is a sarcastic reflection on the toppled dictator who cannot not imagine how his peoples will survive without him. “A List for Disremembering”, on the other hand, is a plain tale about a clash between two young lovers. Nothing is obviously intricate or new, except for the writer's ability to depict the trivial and silly thoughts people experience when they are in love. El-Khamisi is brave enough to depict the hesitant attitude of the young man, running happily down the stairs when his girlfriend calls him back after a short disruption. “Glint” is the longest short story in the collection. In 20 pages, the writer depicts a love story between two adult and cultured people: a university professor and a journalist; which can be seen as a brief script for a long feature film. The highly subtle description of Rehab, the journalist, as a light in the darkness that prevails over the routine and stagnant life of the professor is excellent. Though the love story ends dramatically with the sudden death of Rehab, due to a fatal disease, the tale with its funny and surprising moments, its concise yet meaningful conversations, is engraved in one's memory as a source of hope. The writer's use of spoken Arabic is frequent and acceptable, yet this story is – appropriately, for some reason – written entirely in standard Arabic. In ‘Last Time', the writer tells another funny story about an old couple coming from Upper Egypt on a short visit to Cairo. They take the wrong microbus to their Cairo destination, and while they argue with the driver over taking back the fee – having discovered their mistake – a much bigger fight between the driver and a motorist breaks out, resulting in the escape of all the passengers. The old couple stand hesitantly to one side of the road, the woman clinging to her husband's hand, trying to measure the distance they have to cross to the other side of the road to take the right microbus. Kissing her husband's fingers, the old woman murmurs, “Sorry, brother, this is the last time we come to Cairo. Sorry.” The four-page story manages superbly to capture the reader's attention with its witty, quick and comic sequence. As you finish reading it you wonder how deep the lack of communication between people from different stretches of the same river valley can be. Here as elsewhere the language is as easy as it is sophisticated, and El-Khamissi's ability to capture unnoticed details and rare human moments in different contexts will prove appealing to all kinds of reader. Only the cover, designed by Studio 306 and showing the head of a rooster painted in orange and brown disrupted my experience. It could have been more attractive, and sensible, too, since the stories are varied and rich in symbols.
