Year of Reading 11: "The Beggar"

I have been enjoying the works of Naguib Mahfouz for some time. This is the fourth novel of his I have read (third this year). This work revolves around the malaise felt by a lawyer named Omar. His doctor recommends he takes some time off, and give up smoking and drinking. So he goes to the beach and tried to rediscover himself. In this he is unsuccessful. The on his return to Cairo, he starts many affairs with dancers and bar girls. He still doesn't find happiness. By the end he leaves his family, restarts he career as a poet, reflects on the nature of the sunrise, and finally isolates himself in a garden, where he perceives outsiders as mere illusions. In the end he is being rushed off to the hospital with a gunshot wound, but he still believes that it isn't real.

I was really surprised at the Buddhist aspects of this novel. Omar's journey seems to be modelled on Prince Bodvistatha's. Considering this is coming from an Islamic country is more shocking, but it seems that Mahfouz was actually quite "with it" when it came to his analysis of the world.