Ahmed Zaghloul Alsheety (1961-) is a contemporary Egyptian novelist who has enormously attracted attention to himself after his first important novel, Poisonous Roses for Sakr. Published in Cairo, February 1990, Roses was heartily received by the literary circles inside and outside Egypt. He is one of the most outstanding writers who started writing in the 1980s whose writings carry inside them a unique taste and a distinctive flavor though they belong to the main current of New Sensibility 1. {Sabry Hafez, (Sept. 1990). “ Two Critical Approaches to Ahmed Zaghloul Alsheety’s Novel: Poisonous Roses for Sakr.” Adab Wa Nakd. pp.106-107}
Alsheety was born in Demitta, February, 10th, 1961 into a family that mainly worked in furniture industry for which the city is famous. Finishing his secondary school in Demitta, Alsheety moved into Cairo where he graduated from the faculty of Law, Cairo University in 1983. All through his educational years, and perhaps because of the premature death of the father, Alsheety had to work during his summer vacation, and sometimes during the school year in furniture making workshops specially in the sophisticated wood-carving known as “Oyma” ( Hafez, 107)
Despite his difficult life, Alsheety started a very early writing career; he could not publish, however, till 1985. His stories followed after that in many Egyptian papers and magazines like Almesaa, AlAhaly, Adab Wa Nakd, Alkahera, Almakwef AlAraby, Alensan wa Altatwor. These scattered stories revealed a true talent together with an inherent artistic flavor especially in Poisonous Roses for Sakr.
The novel includes what is called the eighties’ novel flavor which arises from the disillusions of the eighties and the costly ruins of the seventies that kill any hope for upheaval and blocks all roads towards salvation in the eyes of the youth. The novel is characterized by an overwhelming amount of maturity, whether in its vision or unique writing techniques: its distinctive novelistic voice, and its particular narrative situation that astonishes the reader from the very first lines.( Hafez,107) The novel was the subject of a special critical issue of Adab Wa Nakd, many literary reviews by distinguished critics, and various seminars of the Cairo International Book Fair in 1990. Nominated as the best Egyptian novel in 1990, the younger generation considered it the “icon” of the nineties and a new birth for a new Egyptian Narration.
Alsheety’s other works are Internal Winter ( Cairo, Mohktarat Fosoul, 1991) and Paper Toys ( Cairo, Sharkiat, 1994.) Of Winter, Dr Said Albahrawy writes: “ It ( the collection) reveals a complex consciousness; concerned with our contemporary life’s problems in spite of the writer’s deep optimism that pushes him still to write.” ( Said Elbahrawy.( Feb.1989) “ New Visions”. Adab wa Nakd. p 65) Of Toys, Edward Alkharat writes: “ They are outstanding stories in the Modernist fictional mood. They handle the internal/external psychological reality alike; extremely brief. If read together, the stories may seem as an answer to a latent and original oppression in a fragile heavy world, {Alkharat. ( 1995) “The Toys of Reality and Beyond” Nazwa. Pp269-270}
Alsheety awaits the publishing of his fourth book that consists of short texts that have been published in the Egyptian and Arabic periodicals and in the last ten years.
In spite of the warm reception that Alsheety’s writings were met with in the 1990s, his work as a lawyer in the investment field together with his movement between his residence in Heliopolis, Cairo and his birthplace in Demitta, Alsheety’s physical appearance inside the center of Cairo cultural circles rather dwindled in the last ten years. However, he is back to the center with a new novel in progress. More important than this is his interest in securing his financial independence depending on his own capacities away from external financial patronizing. To him, the independence of the creative person is a major condition for continuity in a third world country like Egypt where all kinds of confused and/or suspicious financial patronizing exist.
From the distinguished critics who wrote on Alsheety are Edward Alkharat, Sabry Hafez, Said Elbahrawy, Said Hamed Alnasag, Abdurrahman Abou Ouf, Ramadan Albastaweesy, Said Alwakeel( Proceedings of the Seventh Literary Demitta Conference.2004) Mahmoud Abdulwahab ( Althakafah Algadeedah, April 1992) Khaleel Alkhaleel ( Adab wa Nakd, Sept. 1990) Fareedah Alnakash, August 1999) Sameer Alfeel ( Mowagahat, 2000) Seif Ali Badawy ( Althakafah Algadeedah, August 1999). In addition to those critical articles and reviews, one academic paper was done on Alsheety comparing him to the Irish novelist James Joyce to Cairo symposium, 2008. The paper was entitled “Signature and Countersignature: reading James Joyce and Ahmed Zaghloul Alsheety.” Taking Derrida’s theory, the study refers to the new birth of Sakr Abulwahed, Alsheety’s problematic Egyptian hero of Roses, to stand on equal footing with Stephen Dedalus the Irish one. Both express a disturbed relation with the Motherland in an awkward moment of their histories together with expressing the need to find a distinctive literary voice to their respective talents. Both use the myth of Deadalus and Icarus as a metafiction narrative containing and illuminating the smaller narratives. ( Mona Elnamoury. Cairo Symposium, November, 2008)
Notes
1- "New Sensibility" is an awkward term coined by Edward Elkhart in his book The New Sensibility to express a new tendency in Egyptian fiction/writing that started after the sixties and currently. Literally, by it he meant, "how to receive the external influences and respond to them". In fiction, it is characterized by breaking the linear narrative and time sequence together with the traditional plot; fathoming in the psychological depth and using the deep "I" narrative situation; breaking the traditional linguistic structure; expanding the connotation of reality through myth, dream, poetry, and finally questioning the established social reality while building a new artistic reality unique in its rules and logic.
