The Diaries of Waguih Ghali

Description

In 1968 Egyptian novelist and political exile Waguih Ghali committed suicide in the London flat of his editor, friend, and sometime lover, Diana Athill. Ghali left behind six notebooks of diaries that for decades were largely inaccessible to the public. The Diaries of Waguih Ghali: An Egyptian in the Swinging Sixties, in two volumes, is the first publication of its kind of the journals, casting fascinating light on a likable and highly enigmatic literary personality.
Waguih Ghali (1930?–69), author of the acclaimed novel Beer in the Snooker Club, was a libertine, sponger, and manic depressive, but also an extraordinary writer, a pacifist, and a savvy political commentator. Covering the last four years of his life, Ghali’s Diaries offer an exciting glimpse into London’s swinging sixties. Volume 1 tells of Ghali’s life in Rheydt, West Germany, providing unique insights from the perspective of an Egyptian immigrant on postwar Germany and shedding light on Ghali’s own writing and personality when he was at the peak of his depression. This volume also includes his reminiscences of his childhood in Alexandria and Cairo, drawing in bittersweet nostalgia a picture of a bygone era in Egypt, while in the background loom what would become milestone events in his adopted countries in subsequent decades: the Treblinka trials and the gains of the National Democratic Party in Germany and the rise of the Labour Party in Britain.
Including an interview conducted by Deborah Starr with celebrated literary editor Diana Athill OBE, the Diaries bring together those most familiar with Ghali’s life and work, and offer a fresh take on a distinctive author and a vibrant decade.

Sujets

• Middle Est
• Histoire
• Egypt
• History

Informations

• Publié par: The American University in Cairo Press
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781617977688
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

ISBN: 978-977-416-780-5

THE DIARIES OF

EDITED BY MAY HAWAS

Including an interview with Diana Athill

AN EGYPTIAN WRITER IN THE SWINGING SIXTIES1964–66

From the author ofBeer in the Snooker Club

ThE DIàRIES Of WàguIh GhàlI

Diaries THE of WaGUiH GHaLi an eGypTian WriTer in THe sWinGinG sixTies

VoLUme 1: 1964–66

Edited by May Hawas

The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York

Copyright ©2016 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Exclusive distribution outside Egypt and North America by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd., 6 Salem Road, London, W4 2BU

Dar el Kutub No. 25803/15 ISBN 978 977 416 780 5

Dar el Kutub Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hawas, May The Diaries of Waguih Ghali: An Egyptian Writer in the Swinging Sixties, Volume 1 (1964–66)/May Hawas.—Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2016 p. cm. ISBN: 978 977 416 780 5 1. Ghali, Waguih, 1930–1969 — Diaries 2. Writers, Arabic I. Title 928.927

1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16

Designed by Amy Sidhom Printed in the United States of America

CONtENtS

Acknowledgments Introduction Interview with Diana Athill, by Deborah Starr

The Diaries of Waguih Ghali 1. Going Mad 2. All My Resolutions 3. London 4. Yesterday Spent a Quiet Evening at Home 5. It Is, I Suppose, Time to Reckon Up Again

Notes Index

vii 1 15

21 23 75 113 165 209

233 235

ackNOwlEdgMENtS

I would like to thank Diana Athill for allowing me to work with this manuscript, and for agreeing to be amiably interrogated. Thank you to Deborah Starr for taking a leap of faith at the beginning of the project, and agreeing to conduct the interview with Diana Athill inVolume 1and with Samir Basta inVolume 2. I am also grateful to various of Waguih Ghali’s family members, particularly Samir Basta, and others whose names I choose to keep private, for allowing me to revisit painful memories, giving me their time, agreeing to be interviewed for the introduction, and,this book.all in all, doing their best to help with the production of Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the wonderful people at the American University in Cairo Press, particularly Nadia Naqib, for their meticulous work, courtesy, and speedy efficiency. There have been many people who have been an encouragement to me during the publication process. Thank you to Theo D’haen, Ferial Ghazoul, and Bruce Robbins for their continuous inspirational presence in my public sphere. I am very grateful, too, to Georges Khalil, for his sustained interest in the book, and for keeping patient with my changing deadlines in Berlin. Finally, a huge thank you to May El Sallab for her valuable advice once upon an unlikely evening in Alexandria. My family who always put up with so much: thank you Maha, Nabil, Bassam, and Ahmed for being there when you are, and for being there when you’re not; and thank you Maha, in particular, for smiling for us all when we don’t have smiles.

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iNtROductION

“Rather, we aim at being personalities of a general . . . a fictitious type.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky,Notes from Underground (epigraph toBeer in the Snooker Club)

ThE DIScOvERY On Boxing Day in 1968 Egyptian novelist and political exile Waguih Ghali committed suicide in the London flat of his editor, friend, and sometime lover, Diana Athill. He left her a note requesting that she edit and publish his diaries. For various reasons she did not, although she eventually published a memoir of their relationship (After A Funeral, 1986). For decades Ghali’s diaries have been largely inaccessible to the public, and in recent years, when Athill realized the originals had been misplaced, the diaries have not been accessible at all. In January 2014, however, a photocopy of the complete diaries turned up, preserved by Deborah Starr of Cornell University who had photocopied them around ten years earlier on a visit to London. It is thus a great pleasure to many that the diaries are now finally accessible in print form.The Diaries of Waguih Ghali: An Egyptian Writer in the Swinging Sixtiesis the first published appearance of the journal of a highly personable and enigmatic literary personality. Unedited, the manuscript stands at some 700 pages, all scanned from a decade-old, photocopied version of Ghali’s already hardly decipherable, drunken scrawl. They have been meticulously transcribed and edited, and are now

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