A review by sabai
Circling the Square: Stories from the Egyptian Revolution by Wendell Steavenson

5.0

This book makes it very clear from the outset that there is no clear headed logic to the events in Egypt from the protests to the many coups and counter coups since, and this is why it's so good. Steavenson's notes on the revolution are as much about the people who weren't there as those who were, and through her own struggles to understand the whos, whats and whys, we get to see a constantly shifting view of events, told through characters who are changing as time progresses. Steavenson's observations are almost poetic, the sidebar to the frenzy of real life events as she constantly tries to step back and see things more clearly and then gets reeled back in.