A consummate listener
Monday, September 4th, 2006From the Economist’s obituary of Naguib Mahfouz:
He was a perfect gentleman: self-effacing, tolerant to a fault, and a consummate listener. Into his 70s he prowled far across the city on solitary early-morning walks, typically ending up in one of the many cafés where he was greeted as a returning son of the quartier. Into his 90s he rarely missed his weekly gathering of intimates at some public watering hole. There he soaked up the endless tales of woe, the political gossip and wicked jokes that provide the spice of Egyptian life.
I don’t read many novels lately, but his Cairo Trilogy is back on my shortlist.