Rania Khallaf armchair-travels to Chicago 's second novel, Chicago -- a 450-page tome set in the histology department of the university where Aswany earned his phD in that American state many years ago -- has been even better received than The Yaqoubian Building, adapted into a movie last year. El-Aswany's name has become synonymous with best-selling literature, indeed even beyond the Arab world -- evidence of which was to be had last week at the local launch of Actes Sud's French edition of Chicago, held at the French Cultural Centre and attended by some 200 Egyptian and French readers. According to Gilles Gauthier, former cultural attache and French translator of Aswany, there is much to commend the latter to a French readership: "I found out about El-Aswany four years ago, when a friend brought me his Yaqoubian Building. I read half of it in the metro, and felt at once that it should be translated. I was pretty sure the novel would sell, but I never expected such smashing success." The figure for France, as quoted by Aswany himself, is 160,000; at the end of 2006 Lire magazine also named Yaqoubian sixth of the 20 best books published in France that year. But there is more to Yaqoubian than sales, Guthier insists: "There are characters in the book that are unforgettable, characters you feel you have lived with for years despite the cultural differences. The real success of a book has to do with its value as a literary work, and The Yaqoubian Building is a story that finds favour with readers everywhere. Taken together [with Chicago ], the two novels give French readers a clue about the real culture of the peoples of the South Mediterranean, just as Balzac portrayed the status and destiny of the middle class more efficiently than Marx did." Characters in the more recent novel are even more intimate and real, indeed: with Denana, Shaimaa, Tarek Nagui and Graham, one feels a close affinity, much as one did with the cast of Yaqoubian -- a down-to-earth literary presentation if ever there was one. It is rather the structure of Chicago that is different, like a gallery of portraits, each one executed down to the tiniest, most interesting detail: Shaimaa and Tarek as the couple hoping to conclude their love with a happy marriage; Salah, the professor locked up in his past love for Zeinab; and Nagui, questioning his very own existence. Each portrait takes up a prominent place inside the gallery, but beyond the gallery hall, as it were, only the faintest bonds hold the portraits together; and a closer look reveals that that gallery hall is more or less synonymous with Egypt. Besides the Egyptian characters, there are a number of Americans humanely portrayed: Carol, a black single mother who ends up as a nude model after failing to earn enough to cover her child's expenses, is one such. For Gauthier, on the other hand, "What's fresh about Chicago is the atmosphere, where Aswany has efficiently dragged his characters into the University of Illinois and let them interact spontaneously with the American society." Nagui, a communist student, starts out seeing the US as the Arab world's greatest enemy, but as time goes by, he finds out that America it is less ugly than it appears from a distance -- but no more attractive either. "The most interesting implication in this novel is its reference to the clash of civilizations, as well as many aspects of the difference between North and South." Confirming such ideas to his audience at the Centre, Aswany seemed more excited than ever before: "Creating the characters was the most difficult part. I used to wake up in the morning and write down the details pertaining to each character separately. For example, if I'm writing about Shaimaa (who is a based on a real person I met while studying in Chicago), I will list her age, the colour of her hair, whether or not she smokes -- until I get to the point where I can see her fully embodied before my eyes. So then we I am writing, if I feel confused, I can go back and consult these fully formed creations..." For Aswany the purpose of Chicago was to uncover "the machine mechanism" -- the harsh capitalist dynamic which crushes the poor and the weak in America. The end may be pessimistic, he conceded in response to one French reader, with a smile, "But literature is never that direct. Even if the end is gloomy, that doesn't mean I am not optimistic." Born in 1957, Aswany is among the founders of Kifaya and an oppositional political columnist; and here as elsewhere his harsh critique of the government is evident, with numerous scenes exposing the authorities flagrant human-rights violations. "After the success of The Yaqoubian Building, I had to wait a whole year before embarking on something new, because sometimes success can have a negative influence. Still, underneath this text, there lives another -- invisible text, a truthful message that cannot be mistaken -- that's at the core of any good story. I believe that message is about the miserable fate of the fanatic." But the success of Chicago -- first serialised in the popular oppositional newspaper Al-Dustour, something that made it available to people otherwise completely divorced from contemporary literature -- derives as much from accessibility as "depth": such accessibility is, however, undermined by the length of some paragraphs that seem to go on for pages describing a single idea. This happens, for example, when the author discusses the 1968 Student Movement in Chapter 15, dealing with the involvement of Graham in demonstrations among other things. It slows down the reading and disrupts the pace while playing no essential role. "Such details build up the atmosphere," Aswany retorted on the phone. "Background that is essential to painting proper wholesome characters; and such details are all relevant to the way the characters think and behave." But this is not the novel's only drawback. In both Yaqoubian and Chicago, explicit sex is frequent and graphic but hardly provocative and never erotic: it is either comic -- as in Tarek and Shaimaa's first sexual encounter, or horrific, as in the sexual abuse of detainees and their wives by security forces back home. Still, Aswany's portrayal of Lieutenant Safwat Shakir's behaviour with the wives of political detainees is truly brilliant, reflecting a striking mix of the abuse of power and obsessive lust that informs this type of character. Some readers -- like the blogger Mahmoud, have taken issue with excessive use of sex in Aswany's novels, but for Aswany, "This only reflects the sexual repression of some readers. And I do not take that into consideration, because if I did, it would be a complete betrayal of my own creative style." A style that aims to be informative as well as engaging: one of the novel's most interesting parts is a long introduction on the history of Chicago. "I've read a lot about the history of this city -- its contradictions, if I may say so -- and I picked some elements to add a special taste to my story, as in the tale of the cow which triggered this huge fire in the late 19th century. Chicago has sold over 75,000 copies in Egypt since January, but I am getting negative reactions all the time. Even more surprising," Aswany added sadly, "is the complete absence of writers from this event." Still, the novel will be adapted for the screen, though Aswany gave no further details. Nor did he reveal what he intends to write about next, and whether, as one audience member prophesied, it would be political corruption in Egypt: "One day we will all disappear and so will political dictatorships, but the novel will stay. For me, writing a novel is like falling in love with a beautiful woman -- you can never tell how and when you will fall in love again."
