The writer’s short story collection “Talk To Me About The Girls” was our book club selection for December 2011.
Find more information on our December 2011 selection: the novel, the author and his work through the book's page.
He was born in Beha in eastern Egypt and studied philosophy at Cairo University. He was a key figure in Egypt's literary generation of the 1960s. He published more than 40 books, including 18 novels and 12 short story collections. Among his many awards are the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Best Novel, the State Excellency Award, the State Appreciation Award, and the Tayyib Salih Prize.
Kandil was one of the prominent novelists in the Arabic literary scene. He was a novelist, short story writer essayist and critic. He had an active role in the Egyptian literary activities.
Fouad Kandil ( b.1944- 2015) studied philosophy which had its impacts on his works. He worked in the different cultural organizations since 1962. He began his literary career as an essayist, novelist and short story writer during the mid 1960s. His literary works have attracted the critics and the academic circles as well , since there are six dissertations of ph.d. and master degrees were written about his literary works.
Fouad Kandil published 16 novels such as The Ceiling, Wawa Times, The Roots of Temptation, Life Kiss, Mohebat,s spirit , Let the Door Open. Among his collections of short stories one can not forget works such as Sun Honey, The Coquette, Friday Fair And others.
Fouad Kandil was a prolific writer, so it is difficult for the critics to classify him in one school or approach.He depended on various kinds of technique, But most of his works followed either realism or fantasy. Sometimes he may use both in one novel
He depended also, on the satiric texture of his narrative to lead the reader to the depth of humanity.
Kandil was an experimentalist in some of his works. Some important Egyptian critics have asserted this ability of Kandil such as Aly AlRaey , Shokry Ayyad, Salah Fadl, Sabry Havez, Rashid Al Enany, Mohamad Abd Al Mottaleb, Yousef Nofal, Samy Khashabah, Hamed Abu Ahmad, Abd AlRahman Abu Auf and others. They refer to his ability to attract his readers to the satiric style aiming at discovering the deep structure of his novels or short stories .
Fouad Kadil could use different techniques of narrative such as satire, absurdity, fantazy, dream,illusion, and experimentation to surpass reality to super reality or his own reality. He, also, used symbols and irony through a wonderful and poetic language to give his readers a new world.
