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A review by hayasbooks
The City Always Wins by Omar Robert Hamilton
5.0
ouch.
this book seared into my very being.
what the fuck.
i began this book last month, and was immediately hooked, and attached to the characters. i purposefully slowed my reading pace and took my time annotating and analysing just to soak up every last bit of this book. it is haunting. my god i love it.
hamilton really knows how to capture his readers' attention from the very start. his writing style is so chaotic and fast-paced yet poetic and, quite frankly, painful. the way the writer describes loss, death, and deprivation is so casual it will rip you apart.
"down with the military rule"
this phrase has been repeated throughout the book, and it never fails to poke at the revolutionist in me. this book gives so much insight about the january 25 revolution in egypt from an insider point of view. i was sucked in to the world of mariam and khalil. the world where every other person is a martyr, or the relative of a martyr. the book tells a few devastating stories about those relatives and further gives all the more reason to fight the corruption.
there are several familiar descriptions in this book. ones that speak of graffiti on old walls and listening to fairuz in the morning whilst drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. i'm not from egypt, but these descriptions are similar to where i'm from, and they really hit close to home. i've realized that it's not really home if i don't see "thawra" graffiti or just random swear-word graffiti on the walls, and that's the beauty of it. it's home, and it's comforting. hamilton also uses the exact translations of some arabic words, and sometimes, he never even bothers to translate them. and i know the arabs reading are all thinking of it like some sort of inside joke. i love it.
pity, grief, anger.
no, not anger. raw unbridled rage. those are merely a few of the emotions i felt while reading. it had me in tears quite a few times. and gave me goosebumps in others. i have never felt this much intense emotion whilst reading a book before. unbelievable.
i refuse to talk about the ending. heart-fucking-breaking. i refused to believe that the book had ended. it had me maniacally flipping for more pages when i knew there were none left.
"brings Egypt to her knees"
this is also a repeated phrase. the mere personification of the falling country, i can feel it in my heart. i loathe the way this makes me feel. i hate it i hate it i hate that it shakes me to my very core.
this book shakes me to my very core. i hate this book as much as i love it and i give in to every nauseatingly poetic word hamilton says. to the inherent beauty of recklessness and revolution. but despite the determination and pathetically hopeful attempts, the city always wins.
this book seared into my very being.
what the fuck.
i began this book last month, and was immediately hooked, and attached to the characters. i purposefully slowed my reading pace and took my time annotating and analysing just to soak up every last bit of this book. it is haunting. my god i love it.
hamilton really knows how to capture his readers' attention from the very start. his writing style is so chaotic and fast-paced yet poetic and, quite frankly, painful. the way the writer describes loss, death, and deprivation is so casual it will rip you apart.
"down with the military rule"
this phrase has been repeated throughout the book, and it never fails to poke at the revolutionist in me. this book gives so much insight about the january 25 revolution in egypt from an insider point of view. i was sucked in to the world of mariam and khalil. the world where every other person is a martyr, or the relative of a martyr. the book tells a few devastating stories about those relatives and further gives all the more reason to fight the corruption.
there are several familiar descriptions in this book. ones that speak of graffiti on old walls and listening to fairuz in the morning whilst drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. i'm not from egypt, but these descriptions are similar to where i'm from, and they really hit close to home. i've realized that it's not really home if i don't see "thawra" graffiti or just random swear-word graffiti on the walls, and that's the beauty of it. it's home, and it's comforting. hamilton also uses the exact translations of some arabic words, and sometimes, he never even bothers to translate them. and i know the arabs reading are all thinking of it like some sort of inside joke. i love it.
pity, grief, anger.
no, not anger. raw unbridled rage. those are merely a few of the emotions i felt while reading. it had me in tears quite a few times. and gave me goosebumps in others. i have never felt this much intense emotion whilst reading a book before. unbelievable.
i refuse to talk about the ending. heart-fucking-breaking. i refused to believe that the book had ended. it had me maniacally flipping for more pages when i knew there were none left.
"brings Egypt to her knees"
this is also a repeated phrase. the mere personification of the falling country, i can feel it in my heart. i loathe the way this makes me feel. i hate it i hate it i hate that it shakes me to my very core.
this book shakes me to my very core. i hate this book as much as i love it and i give in to every nauseatingly poetic word hamilton says. to the inherent beauty of recklessness and revolution. but despite the determination and pathetically hopeful attempts, the city always wins.