"Proud Beggars" by Albert Cossary *****

• Summer Sub Club read with Beth
• Egyptian author
• Originally published, 1955
• Vocabulary:
• saltimbank:  street performer
• Characters:
• Gohar:  university professor turned hashish addict and philosopher
• Yeghan:  hashish dealer, admirer of Gohar's intellect
• El Kordi:  civil servant, in love with tuberculaar prostitute
• Nour El Dine:  detective, homosexual,  obsessed with his dignity, chasing Samir
• Samir:  hates his father for representing the bourgeois ideal

• Quotes:
• p.4..."He hated to surround himself with objects: objects concealed hidden germs of misery--the worst kind of all, unconscious misery, which fatslly breeds suffering by its unending presence."...Gohar
• p.4..."Most furniture and ordinary objects insulted his eyes, as they could not nourish his need for human fantasy.  Only people with their endless follies, had the power to amuse him."...Gohar
• p.7..."It was always the same thing: this amazement he felt before the absurd easiness of life.  all was simple and ludicrous.  ...The swarming poverty that surrounded him was not at all tragic; it seemed to conceal a mysterious opulence, treasures of a strange, unknown richness.  A prodigious indifference seemed to preside over the destiny of this crowd; here, every humiliation assumed  pure and innocent character."
• p.8..."He had the piercing look that marked the professional beggar able to judge his client with a single glance."
• p.17...."To teach life without living it was a crime of the most detestable ignorance."
• p.20..." 'What is most futile in man.....is this search for dignity.'  All these people trying to maintain their dignity? For what? The history of mankind is a long, bloody nightmare only because of such nonsense.  As if the fact of being alive wasn't dignity in itself.  Only the dead are undignified."
• p.34..."She was skilled in the art of distilling sadness; she spun misery like a spider its web."...Yeghen's mother
• p.36..."His mother's soup was the supreme insult to his optimism; it reeked of good intentions and respectable poverty."
• p.37..."She enjoyed her sadness, not understanding that one  can laugh despite the gravest deprivations."
• p.100..."Their inalienable misery, their refusal to participate in the destiny of the civilized world, concealed such strength that no earthly power could exhaust it.....he begrudged them their indifference their capacity to disregard the principles of a world whose foundation was sadness and contrition.  By what magic had they escaped common distress?"...Nour El Dine's view of the impoverished
• p.109...."Gohar now knew that this anguish was not metaphysical,  He knew that it was not an inevitability of the human condition but that it was provoked by a deliberate will, te will of certain powers that had always fought against lucidity and simple reason. These powers considered straightforward ideas their deadliest enemies because they--the powers--could prosper only in obscurantism and chaos!"....view of the powers that run government
• p.109..."The universe was not absurd; it was simply ruled by the most abominable gang of scoundrels that had ever soiled the surface of the planet."
• p.133..."Once we have a country where the population is composed entirely of beggars then you'll see what will become of this arrogant domination.  It will crumble into dust."
• p.146..."Man has become worse than an earthquake.  At any rate he does more damage......don't you agree that the horrors cause by man long ago exceeded those of nature's cataclysms?"....post nuclear bomb
• Notes:
• Many references to the atomic bomb, sense of impending  annihilation
• story of the donkey who was elected mayor....fools
• group at a cafe argued, calling each other fake blind men
• killing of a prostitute for her gold bracelets...turned out to be cheap imitation gold
• Yeghen's mother tried to lend respectability to poverty
• Gohar believes you can choose progress or peace...not both
• I love the hotel which only had three eiderdowns and as a customer got comfy and fell asleep, the clerk would sneak in, take the eiderdown,and offer it to a new customer

• Review:  This is an incredible novel!  I do not know if it is satirical or deadly serious.  Probably both.  Set in Post WWII Egypt amongst a host of beggars, the reader gets a glimpse into a sub-culture which may well represent the only means to true peace and joy?  If one has nothing left to lose, life becomes full of peace?  The cast of characters?:  Gohar (university professor become hashish addict whose dream is to migrate to Syria where there are free fields of hashish), Yeghen (Gohars's dealer and supplicant), El Kordi (civil servant who dreams of performing acts of heroism to free his beloved who happens to be a prostitute), Nour El Dine (detective and homosexual who dreams of rising above his life amongst the masses), and many more.  Oh, did I mention that there is also a murder?  Yes, this novel is entertaining, philosophical, and disturbing all at once.  Just read it and see for yourself!