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lizzieaxxe's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
worldlibraries's review against another edition
2.0
There is a good book in here. Indeed, the potential good book could have been extracted and everything else left behind. I found I had to will myself to finish this book and more than half of my friends couldn't finish it. That tells you the boring parts were too much. I found reading this book made me want to write a structural outline of how to tell this story, as the narrative would switch from one century to another and I frequently found I had to reread passages to figure out who was talking. The translator is unnamed. I found some parts of the story seemed to have been translated by someone with a whole higher level of skill than other parts.
Next, to criticize character development. Anna is a lovely character. It is her cross-cultural love story that makes up the interesting part of the story. I found her too perfect though. There aren't many expats in the world who can turn their back COMPLETELY on their home culture and let the family life alone of their new culture be their entire world. I found the idea of that unrealistic. Another character is Isabel, the American who wants to have a cross-cultural relationship with Omar, who is not willing. She gets pregnant and wills a relationship to be. Isabel is an idiot. It made it hard as a reader to identify with her.
Secondly, to criticize subplots that go nowhere. Incest was suggested to have occured in this story. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It most assuredly doesn't draw a reader in to the potential relationship between two people in the book, if one of the people might be ... SPOILER. I didn't understand why the author included this subplot. Is this a common happening in Egypt? I can only conclude that must be so, as why was it included? It sure makes readers recoil. I don't think that's the emotion writers of love stories normally go for.
Another thing that seemed very real in this book is that there is no reward in a place like Egypt for trying to reform it. Since free speech isn't a part of the culture, Egyptians attempting change are silenced in the worst possible ways.
I read this book on a Kindle. One thing Amazon could have done to enhance the enjoyment of reading this book is to have Arabic words used in the text linked to their definitions in the glossary. English language readers don't have Arabic dictionaries loaded on their Kindle so the definitions of Arabic words continued to go unknown unless the reader was 1) aware of the glossary in the back of the book (unlikely), and 2) willing to do the work each time of looking the word up when a link would have made the whole thing super easy.
Next, to criticize character development. Anna is a lovely character. It is her cross-cultural love story that makes up the interesting part of the story. I found her too perfect though. There aren't many expats in the world who can turn their back COMPLETELY on their home culture and let the family life alone of their new culture be their entire world. I found the idea of that unrealistic. Another character is Isabel, the American who wants to have a cross-cultural relationship with Omar, who is not willing. She gets pregnant and wills a relationship to be. Isabel is an idiot. It made it hard as a reader to identify with her.
Secondly, to criticize subplots that go nowhere. Incest was suggested to have occured in this story. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It most assuredly doesn't draw a reader in to the potential relationship between two people in the book, if one of the people might be ... SPOILER. I didn't understand why the author included this subplot. Is this a common happening in Egypt? I can only conclude that must be so, as why was it included? It sure makes readers recoil. I don't think that's the emotion writers of love stories normally go for.
Another thing that seemed very real in this book is that there is no reward in a place like Egypt for trying to reform it. Since free speech isn't a part of the culture, Egyptians attempting change are silenced in the worst possible ways.
I read this book on a Kindle. One thing Amazon could have done to enhance the enjoyment of reading this book is to have Arabic words used in the text linked to their definitions in the glossary. English language readers don't have Arabic dictionaries loaded on their Kindle so the definitions of Arabic words continued to go unknown unless the reader was 1) aware of the glossary in the back of the book (unlikely), and 2) willing to do the work each time of looking the word up when a link would have made the whole thing super easy.
ecruikshank's review against another edition
5.0
“—and there, on the table under her bedroom window, lies the voice that has set her dreaming again. Fragments of a life lived a long, long time ago. Across a hundred years the woman’s voice speaks to her—so clearly that she cannot believe it is not possible to pick up her pen and answer.”
THE MAP OF LOVE is a gorgeously written multigenerational family saga set in parallel timelines. (If that’s not sufficient bookish catnip, I don’t know what to tell you.)
Amal and Isabel are distant cousins who discover a trunk filled with artifacts from Isabel’s great-grandmother Anna and begin piecing together Anna’s story through her diaries and letters. A century earlier, the recently widowed Lady Anna has traveled to Egypt to explore a world she has previously admired only through paintings and her father-in-law’s stories; she becomes enmeshed in Egyptian life while falling in love with Sharif Pasha, a respected and powerful Egyptian lawyer. Throughout the book, characters in both timelines influence and react to historical events and passionately debate the matters of the day.
Soueif is a brilliant writer. She lingers over the striking landscape and quotidian details of Cairo life, weaving the setting into a rich tapestry. I fell in love with the complex, fully realized characters—my initial Goodreads review was simply, “I would spend 500 more pages with this family.” Soueif brilliantly illustrates, on a micro and macro level, the challenges of attempting to understand another culture and the tragedy that can arise from the inability to perfectly translate across cultural divides. Issues of colonialism and imperialism are at the forefront of, and enhance, both timelines.
I have seen comparisons to The English Patient and Possession, both of which resonate with me. I am eager to pick up In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, which seems to have a similar premise.
THE MAP OF LOVE is a gorgeously written multigenerational family saga set in parallel timelines. (If that’s not sufficient bookish catnip, I don’t know what to tell you.)
Amal and Isabel are distant cousins who discover a trunk filled with artifacts from Isabel’s great-grandmother Anna and begin piecing together Anna’s story through her diaries and letters. A century earlier, the recently widowed Lady Anna has traveled to Egypt to explore a world she has previously admired only through paintings and her father-in-law’s stories; she becomes enmeshed in Egyptian life while falling in love with Sharif Pasha, a respected and powerful Egyptian lawyer. Throughout the book, characters in both timelines influence and react to historical events and passionately debate the matters of the day.
Soueif is a brilliant writer. She lingers over the striking landscape and quotidian details of Cairo life, weaving the setting into a rich tapestry. I fell in love with the complex, fully realized characters—my initial Goodreads review was simply, “I would spend 500 more pages with this family.” Soueif brilliantly illustrates, on a micro and macro level, the challenges of attempting to understand another culture and the tragedy that can arise from the inability to perfectly translate across cultural divides. Issues of colonialism and imperialism are at the forefront of, and enhance, both timelines.
I have seen comparisons to The English Patient and Possession, both of which resonate with me. I am eager to pick up In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, which seems to have a similar premise.
esraa77's review against another edition
4.0
الرواية بشكل عام لطيفة جدا وجوها حلو بس حسيت إني فقدت متعه القراءة مع الجزء الأخير من الرواية... ومن اكتر الحاجات اللي ممكن تجذبني لرواية إنها تكون قادرة توصف الأحداث والشخصيات في سياق العصر وتفاعلهم معاه ودا كان حاضر بقوة في الرواية خاصة وإن مصر كانت تعيش حراك سياسي واجتماعي وثقافي كبير.... رائعة!
من اكتر الفقرات اللي معلقة معايا وواقفة عندها ⬇⬇⬇
من اكتر الفقرات اللي معلقة معايا وواقفة عندها ⬇⬇⬇
bookalina0987's review against another edition
1.0
bleh, couldn't even finish it. Out of 9 people in my book club, not a soul completed it.
viktoriya's review against another edition
3.0
I was disappointed by this book.
Reading it wasn't easy at all. I was constantly confused by the names, description of political situation felt like a dry textbook. I came to care a lot for Anna and for Amal and I really wanted to hear their stories. This is the only reason I stuck with the book. In end, I felt I was cheated because their story wasn't really told all the way. I really wanted to hear what happened to Amal, how she came to be living alone, and there was nothing. I wanted to hear more about Anna and Nur, and again nothing. Big let down.
Reading it wasn't easy at all. I was constantly confused by the names, description of political situation felt like a dry textbook. I came to care a lot for Anna and for Amal and I really wanted to hear their stories. This is the only reason I stuck with the book. In end, I felt I was cheated because their story wasn't really told all the way. I really wanted to hear what happened to Amal, how she came to be living alone, and there was nothing. I wanted to hear more about Anna and Nur, and again nothing. Big let down.
maddieardagh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I found the book to attempt a lot of topics at once and cover much ground. I loved the character of Anna Winterborne and the story of the 1900s and the following political conflict of the time but the connection to the present storyline in the 1990s did not feel thorough or well-entwined. It was very informative and insightful as a person who did not grow up knowing much about this history. I appreciated the bridge between personal and political lives in the story.