In his latest book, writer Gaber Asfour travels back in time to his early youth, steering clear for the most part of the theorizing and critical analysis that have been distinguishing features of his work for more than forty years. In Zaman Gameel Mada, or "Good Old Times," he recalls his childhood and the early experiences that shaped his worldview as an adult.
Asfour begins the book by discussing his early love of reading. As a child, he was a frequent visitor to the public libraries in Mahalla el-Kobra and Tanta, the latter being the capital city of his home province in the Nile Delta.
He goes on to talk about his first love and his first teacher, after which he recalls his college years and his first formative meeting with celebrated writer Taha Hussein. Asfour studied at Cairo University’s Arabic Language Department, eventually becoming a teaching assistant in the same department that Hussein had headed for several years.
Later, he longingly recalls the coastal city of Alexandria and the golden age of singer Abdel Halim Hafez and the pan-Arab dreams of Egypt’s charismatic president, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The book concludes with a look at Nasser’s July Revolution on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, contemplating both its legacy and the fates of those who carried it out.
There are, however, some printing errors for which the publisher is most likely responsible. For example, although the table of contents lists the last two chapters of the book as Sadeeqi el-Sheikh Ramadan Gameel ("My Friend, Sheikh Ramadan Gameel") and Sohbet Qasr el-Thaqafa ("Companions of the Palace of Culture"), neither of these two chapters is actually included in the book.
Book: Zaman Gameel Mada ("Good Old Times")
Author: Gaber Asfour
Publisher: Akhbar El-Yom Publishing, part of the "Book-a-Day" series
Size: 194 medium-size pages
