Interview by: Rania Khallaf is a prominent voice in today's literary scene in Cairo. His masterpiece Taghredet El-Baga'a (The Swan Song), published in 2006, was hailed as one of the most important novels of the last decade and was short-listed for of the 2008 Arab Booker prize. Other novels by Sayed include The Ship's Mice (1991) and other collections of short stories. In 2010 Dar-Al-Shorouk published Moktanayat West El-Balad, (Downtown Collectables), 41 profiles of characters the author encountered in Downtown Cairo in the 1980s. The real names of the characters are withheld, but all the events are accurate. The book is divided into two sections, the longer and more interesting being the "Book of People" which includes the profiles, each illustrated by Amr Al-Kafrawi, while the second is the "Book of Places" and includes famous Downtown streets, cafés and restaurants. This month Dar Al-Shorouk brought out an updated edition of Downtown Collectables with a new chapter added to the second section on the history of Tahrir Square as the main battlefield of the revolution. Al-Ahram Weekly interviewed Sayed on the book's relaunch. How did you get the idea of the book? And are the people you profiled real or imaginary? I was born and have spent my whole life in Downtown Cairo, and as a young writer in the beginning of the 1980s I used to take part in literary seminars in varioust Downtown coffeehouses and literary clubs. The cultural life at the time was alive with music, literature and theatrical plays and activities. The characters I wrote about are all real; most of them disappeared from the cultural scene years ago. Some died, others emigrated and a few have turned their backs on cultural life altogether. It was a good motive for me, while writing the book, to start searching for links and information that would bring them back to life again. How did you gather the material for the book, or did your memory serve as a treasure chest? You guessed right. The people I wrote about have lived in my memory for almost 30 years. They were exotic people and friends that I met personally and chatted with, and I watched their personal dramas, their joys and failures and sometimes their scandals. Most of them were marginal people, provincials who had no place to stay in Cairo, so they had to spend more hours in coffeehouses chasing any glimpse of hope to accomplish their dreams in the capital. I started publishing these profiles as individual articles in Al-Badeel newspaper, and I had several offers from publishing houses for a whole series of profiles in a book. Dar Al-Shorouk won out. Although most of the profiles are written with a note of irony, they end with a moral statement that kills the fictional element of the short profile. Why is that? Well, the profiles were not written in the form of a short story. It is rather a genre between a short story and a profile. I meant to end the profiles with a piece of wisdom as a sort of comment, or rather a kind of thin bond between me and the readers. It is as if I am sharing with them this dramatic end to the story. In some profiles, like that of Sezenia, we find a light, exciting story like one in the crime section of a daily newspaper. Why did you take some characters so lightly? In some profiles I had to reveal the character without going deeply into detail. For example, Sezenia was an ordinary woman who happened to enjoy the company of people in the cultural milieu. She was not a writer, but a brave and liberal woman who had many casual relations with men she encountered by chance in a café. She was a kind of a whore; a character whose personal life is accessible to all her friends, and yet accepts their harsh criticism with an open mind. You often use a language that is on the borderline between literary and colloquial. Do you find it suitable here? Sure. I used this semi-literal language largely because the profiles were first published as a series in Al-Badeel newspaper. They were meant to address a certain category of readers. Since many readers liked it the way it was originally written, I decided not to change the style when the series was piblished as a book. In your view, what is the importance of the book's second section, "Book of Places"? Well, I have referred in the first section "Book of People" to some old places that do not exist anymore, or have totally changed. The idea of writing this section is to draw up a kind of biography of the streets, squares, coffeehouses, hotels, night clubs and markets of Downtown Cairo. The unique history of each and every single important coffeehouse, such as Al - Hurreya (literally "Freedom", an old café favoured by intellects) and Al-Nadwa al-Thaqafiya ("the Cultural Seminar", also a haunt of writers and artists), deserve to be enlisted in the book as a reminder of the good old days when Downtown Cairo was a beehive for famous singers, actors and writers. One could never imagine that a famous actress and belly dancer like Tahiya Karyoka or poet Kamel El-Shenawi would have been regulars at Al-Hurreya, which was an intimate meeting point for the cultured elite ever since it opened in 1936. I definitely owe much to my days at the Aly Papa coffeehouse, where I spent endless time as a young writer. It helped me form my literary identity. Downtown Cairo is also the location of your famous novel The Swan Song . How do you perceive Downtown today compared with three decades ago? I can only write about things and places that I know. I was born and raised in Garden City in Downtown Cairo, and I know every single street and building here. I would never be able to write about Upper Egypt, for example. I am sorry to say that Downtown today has lost its zeal, since many aspects of bourgeois life have dramatically disappeared. Instead of luxury shops and restaurants, shoe stores now dominate the scene. Any distortion of the architectural harmony of the buildings was once a crime penalised by law. One thing I miss most is the sound of the piano played by Downtown ladies in the late 1960s. You took part in the 1977 riots. How did the 25 January revolution impact on you? I was a university student when the 1977 riots broke out, and I took part along with other students of my generation. After 34 years I found myself again engaged, this time in the January revolution, and I had all the enthusiasm of a young revolutionist. However, while Sadat's political supporters labelled the 1977 riots as a "thieves' intifada", and they were completely routed by the police, I am so proud of this "youth revolution" which achieved with its unique spirit a kind of popular triumph, we never dreamed of. And while I was there in Tahrir Square among the tear gas I remembered the faces of several friends who were tortured by police while practising their right to peaceful demonstration. Among them were the writer Ibrahim Mansour, who bluntly accused Sadat of betrayal after he signed Camp David treaty. You have written short stories, novels and film scripts. Do you have this craving for experimenting with different genres of literature? Yes, you could say so. I started writing poetry but stopped when I graduated from Cairo University. And I have written scenarios for documentary films. I found it curious to start writing scenarios for short fiction movies. One of my favorite scenarios is Room Number 12, a short based on a treatment of a short story by Naguib Mahfouz with the same title. It won me a Gold Prize in 2002 at the Cairo Radio and Television Festival. Although I am smitten with motion pictures, my greatest passion is writing novels and short stories. What is your next project? I am going to try being the director of a short fiction film for which I have written the screenplay. It is based on a story published last year by Mahmoud El-Werdany entitled No One Is Out There which tackles the tragedy of an ordinary man today who finds himself trapped in a dilemma that is not his fault. As a publisher, do you have plans for this year? The publishing business is booming. We have published dozens of good books. We are going to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Al-Dar this summer, and we are going to hold group book signing receptions for a whole week for all the writers whose books have been published by Al-Dar and helped increase our business.
