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A review by sharkybookshelf
What I Know about You by Éric Chacour
4.0
1980s Cairo, a doctor like his father, Tarek’s life is laid out in front of him, until he opens a clinic in a disadvantaged area of the city and meets Ali…
To be honest, the first half of the story was fairly predictable, but the glimpses of Egyptian life and politics of the time in the background kept me interested enough to keep reading. My perseverance was rewarded - the second half turned into a rollercoaster that I did not foresee, and although it veered close to the melodramatic, ultimately I enjoyed it.
The rather relentless pace of the second half meant that I didn’t have time to get annoyed at the switch to second person narration (which I usually hate) and it took me a few days after finishing to actually digest it all. From societal expectations, shame, love, longing, grief, family relationships and the social dynamics of Cairo in the 70s and 80s, there’s actually quite a lot packed into the story, and it all deftly twines together into a story that lingered.
An immersive, raw and (eventually) unexpected story of love, grief, family and social expectations set against a backdrop of societal changes in Cairo.
To be honest, the first half of the story was fairly predictable, but the glimpses of Egyptian life and politics of the time in the background kept me interested enough to keep reading. My perseverance was rewarded - the second half turned into a rollercoaster that I did not foresee, and although it veered close to the melodramatic, ultimately I enjoyed it.
The rather relentless pace of the second half meant that I didn’t have time to get annoyed at the switch to second person narration (which I usually hate) and it took me a few days after finishing to actually digest it all. From societal expectations, shame, love, longing, grief, family relationships and the social dynamics of Cairo in the 70s and 80s, there’s actually quite a lot packed into the story, and it all deftly twines together into a story that lingered.
An immersive, raw and (eventually) unexpected story of love, grief, family and social expectations set against a backdrop of societal changes in Cairo.