Spring: A Novel

Spring by Leila Rafei
Reviewed by Linda
📙📙📙

I barely see fiction/non-fiction about Egypt or even North Africa generally and this book deserves a push out into the mainstream.

Spring is a book of many firsts for me. It’s the first fictional book I’ve read about Egypt’s 2011 revolution and the overthrow of Mubarak’s regime, and the first that describes Egypt (not just Cairo) with so much accuracy and authenticity that it was the literal ticket I needed to transport me to the motherland that I’m desperately missing this year.

But it’s also the first one that accurately depicts the thought process of different individuals as the Arab Spring swept across North Africa into Egypt and right into Tahrir Square. Rafei gets the literal translations of Egyptian expressions spot on and those that know the Egyptian dialect will know that it is filled with humour and sarcasm which Rafei converts with mastery.

There are a host of themes explored in Spring: western ideals in the Middle East, traditional values and Islamic and Egyptian cultures and Rafei presents us with a character study of three individuals during this time.

We have Sami, an Engineering student immersing himself into Cairo university life leaving behind his pious and conservative mother in the North-easterly town of Mahalla. Rafei’s choice of the third main protagonist was the most important for me and that was Jamila, whose name literally translates from the word for beautiful in Arabic, a Sudanese refugee seeking asylum. As a non-Egyptian searching for safety and freedom during turbulent times, her external viewpoint provides the connection and perspective in this story.

So what was the sticking point for me?

Although rich in character development, the story lacked the action factor that *I* needed from this book. In addition, Rafei uses Sami’s character to accurately depict a generation of apathetic young men who have been ruined by the state of the nation’s corrupt socioeconomic status. This coupled with the excessive mothering, Sami represents the sort of guy we love to hate which left me feeling agitated!