The Year of the Rat Reading 4: "Autumn Quail"

I have developed quite a habit of reading the novels of Naguib Mahfouz over the last few years. He won a nobel prize for Literature. He is the only Arab to do so, so as you can imagine, quite a number of his novels are available in English. I wish there were many more authors translated. It would be nice to read further into the world of Arabic literature.
So I have only been scratching the surface by reading Mahfouz. This novel involves a man who loses his job during the Nasser revolution of 1952. As the Chinese curse goes: "May you live in interesting times." Isa, the protagonist of this work, lives in them and suffers because of them.
Of course no man is an island, so Isa ends up making his difficulties a little worse, mostly by his inaction. He decides to do nothing after losing his position (it kind of reminded me of how I feel in the summer when I am lounging around doing nothing, except his lethargic period lasts for four years). (Actually now that I look at the above it makes absolutely no sense. But I will leave it as is. It will be a testamony to my own unabilities.)
With some books you have to be careful when reading the introduction. This was one of those books. I had to stop reading the introduction because the whole story was being told to me. Dear college professors who translate Arabic. Please don't tell me the whole story in the future. Fortunately I was able to stop reading this information before learning too much. I did learn when the novel would end though, so I did see some events coming (they involve Israelis in case you are wondering).
This book actually made me want to read more about Nasser's revolution. Fortunately I have another book on my bookshelf waiting to be read about Nasser. Oh reader, now I am telling you what will be coming soon (but not too soon since I have tons of other books to finish.)
So do I recommend "Autumn Quail"? Of course I do. Mahfouz is really a wonderful writer. Actually I love the Arabic world. I wish more people in the west would learn more about it. I am stunned at how few of my colleagues make any effort to learn anything of the region. I guess I am one of those people who kind of go native.
Well cheerio.