Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful, wonderful novel¿
Review: After passing up Map of Love on my to-be-read pile the last year, I finally took it with me on a business trip. Once I started reading, I could hardly put it down and even then, I was wondering what would happen next. I looked forward to the next opportunity to throw myself back into this wonderful story.The story travels back and forth between present-day Egypt/New York and to Egypt in the early 1900s. Isabel Parkman, a New York journalist, finds a trunk belonging to her great-grandmother, Anna. The trunk carries Anna's journals, letters and keepsakes, some in English, some in Arabic. When Isabel mentions the trunk to Omar, an attractive Egyptian conductor, Omar suggests that his sister Amal, living in Egypt, would be most appropriate to help Isabel in translating the documents. And then the book takes off in a world of political unrest, danger and romance. As Amal reads the contents of Anna's trunk, the turmoil of the early 1900s come to life, and she discovers a family connection that may hinder Isabel and Omar's budding love relationship. Each chapter was a joy to read. I can't recommend this book enough! Also recommended is My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain.
Rating: 
Summary: more enjoyable for Arabs
Review: This book was a real joy to read. Ahdaf's intricate linking of the personal and the political was real and well-done, both in the plot and character-descriptions and in the dialogue. As an Arab (Lebanese origin) living in the United States, I found her characters to be real. (In contrast to what one reviewer stated earlier, the description of the romance between Anna and Sharif *did* feel honest and real to me, and did correspond beautifully with their characters.) What is most powerful about the book is not the romance between Anna and Sharif and between their descendents Isabel and Omar, but rather the similarity in the political struggle (both the internal domestic struggle and the struggle against Occupation and external domination) in the 1900s and in the 1990s. Furthermore, I found Ahdaf's use of Arabic expressions and her description of the roots of Arabic words to be wonderful! I'm sure that her readers who understand Arabic fluently will enjoy these descriptions more than those who are not familiar with the Arabic language. However, one does not need to know Arabic to appreciate those discussions -- one only needs to have an appreciation for linguistics and for the way that culture influences language and language in turn influences culture.
Rating:
Summary: Good love story with authentic politics
Review: A previous reviewer called this book propaganda, saying that all the points of view are not presented on the history of Egypt. I felt that that was exactly the point - the Egyptian characters have Egyptian opinions, and their conversations and debates are written much as they would have occurred. It's not meant to be a history book; it's a historical novel which, in addition to a compelling (but somewhat standard) set of love stories, also gives an illuminating look into the Egyptian perspective on their own culture and history. I found it a fascinating chance to explore an Egyptian point of view, presented truthfully from characters whose motivations I could understand.
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Summary: "Salamu Aleikum" - Peace be upon you
Review: Listed among the entries for the Booker Prize, Soueif's novel "The Map of Love" is a narrative of relationship between Britain and Egypt in the last century and a story of cross-cultural love. With innovative techniques, the author draws a parallel between the Egypt of early 1900 and the end of the century, carving the present out of the past. The past is represented by the story of an English woman (Anna Winterbourne) who identifies herself with Egyptian struggle against English occupation and married an Egyptian nationalist (Sharif al-Baroudi). The present is represented by Isabel (Anna's great granddaughter) who is determined to find the roots of her Egyptian ancestry. Drawing upon different time lines, with interrelationships, and the use of different narrators, Soueif's novel requires an active and attentive reader. At times excessively romantic and with sugary characters, the author compensates with strong, critical, and biased (understandbly so) politics. There are no kind words for Zionism, imperialism, colonialism, and fundamentalism. In her quest to understand Egypt as a nation the author leaves the reader with the underlying notion that things have not changed much during the country's past century. Despite all the "isms" to be blamed for the country's present state of affairs, internal struggle for power is the epicenter. A passionate, culturally enlightening story, with a beautiful symbolic artifice: the legend of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. "Salamy Aleikum!" (Peache be upon you)
Rating: 
Summary: Very Uneven
Review: The Map of Love, written in the frame of two stories at either end of the twentieth century, is an ambitious work as well as a book that shows the power of love over interracial and political crises. The first story begins with Anna Winterbourne, an English widow who finds herself drawn to Egypt at the end of the nineteenth century, and Sharif Basha al-Baroudi, an Egyptian nobleman who rescues her from a potentially life-threatening situation. Generations later, Omar al-Ghamrawi and Isabel Parkman, both descendants of Anna and Sharif, discover Anna's letters and journals, and, as they do, they find themselves caught in a love story all their own, set against the continued political unrest and haunting beauty of Egypt. The Map of Love is book that almost, but not quite, succeeds. Most of the novel focuses on the love between Anna and Sharif, through both narrative and later, through Anna's writings. These are the most compelling and lovely sections of the book. The romance between Omar and Isabel seems dry and almost boring in comparison to the earlier star-crossed lovers; Omar and Isabel's romance really is pretty predictable. Anna and Sharif, though, have their own problems in this book. Their love exhibits a gushing romanticism that simply seems out of place, at best. For example, in one passage, Sharif says to Anna, "When you lifted your head and looked at me with the sun on your face, I saw your eyes, your amazing violet eyes, and then your face and neck flushed with color and you looked down and hid yourself in the child and all I could see was your hair. I thought, She is beautiful. Truly beautiful." What I think is that no one, in any age, no matter how much in love, ever speaks like this, unless he or she is straining towards deliberate pretension. It sounds downright silly and makes us distrust the story as well as the storyteller. These lapses in the quality of the writing are all the more glaring because, at other times, the author does write passages of lyrical beauty, the following being a wonderful example: "The river like a lifeline thrown across the desert, the villages and towns hanging on to it, clustering together, glancing over their shoulders at the desert always behind them. Appeasing it, finally, by making it the dwelling of their dead." Another problem is the apparent saintliness of both Anna and Sharif. Both are such good people that it is hard to believe in them. Anna turns out to be such a good wife that it matters little to her that an entire population has turned its back on her. Additionally, she goes through her entire married life and manages to have only one decent argument with her husband, an equally saintly personage. The latter half of the book comprises much of the politics of the times, which can get pretty boring. Many of the scenes seem to be inserted only in an effort to educate readers as to the history of the region. It can be interesting to some people, but it certainly doesn't make for compelling fiction. There are times, however, when even the political writing can be lyrical and filled with beauty, as in the following, "A war is bad and an alliance is worse. And one of them has to happen. This is a race to subjugate the world--each nation using the tools it masters best: France, brute strength; Italy, terror; Britain, perfidy, false promises and double stealing; the Zionists, business schemes, blackmail and stealth. And Egypt? What is Egypt's strength? Her resilience? Her ability to absorb people and events into the pores of her being? ...A shifting of responsibility? ...how much can she absorb and still remain Egypt?" This is beautiful writing and it shows that Soueif is definitely a writer with talent. The trouble is, in this book, at least, the beautiful writing only comes in spurts, causing the overall tone of the novel to be quite uneven. Soueif has the same problem with characters. Some are fully-fleshed out, while others remain sadly two-dimensional. At its best, The Map of Love is a lyrically written love story; at its worst, it is an overwritten and melodramatic farce and, as such, a waste of the reader's time and the author's talent.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing, Enchanting
Review: Soueif pulls you so deeply into the characters' world that you want to reach out and take the hands of the lovers... and you're almost startled--and overwhelmingly disappointed--when you cannot. I had difficulty putting this novel down and yearned to continue reading long after I had finished the last page.
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Summary: Beautiful look a life and love in Egypt
Review: This lyrical book paints a vivid and moving picture of colonial and modern-day Egypt, and allows the reader to catch a glimpse of the inherently different ways its history is viewed by East and West. Beautiful descriptions and tender scenes invite the reader to share the pain and the joy of cross-cultural relationships. The modern-day love story echoes the one from the past, showing how little some things have changed in the last hundred years in Egypt. I highly recommend this beautifully written book.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: I notice a previous reviewer has dismissed this book as anti-western propoganda. What nonsense! This book held me spellbound, taught me things, and made me want to find out more. If you're offended by Moslems being presented as rational human beings, then perhaps this book is not for you. But if you love a well-written, multi-layered story which enlightens and entertains, AND is a decent size, so you can really immerse yourself, it would be difficult to find a better book than this.
Rating: 
Summary: A great disappointment
Review: Rarely have I disliked a book as much as this one. It is nothing more than anti-Western propaganda dressed up as a love story. (Or two love stories ' sort of - since the "modern" one isn't really developed.) While it would be absurd to expect an Egyptian author to be sympathetic to either the British colonialists or the Israelis, it is entirely reasonable to expect a nuanced presentation of history, in which the positions of the opposing sides are acknowledged and disposed of. Instead we are handed a British woman who advocates tirelessly for an end to British rule in early 20th Century Egypt, an Egyptian woman who unreservedly defends Hamas, and an American woman who suggests that the United States is akin to the Roman Empire in decline. (Perhaps the author should look Caligula up in the encyclopedia.) This is not history. This is not even advocacy. This is propaganda. As a consequence, the book offers little help to someone actually trying to understand the region. Much heat, no light. The plot itself is advanced primarily by letters and diary entries instead of by dialogue, a particularly convenient way to present the author's political views. The characters are, unfortunately, at best mere stereotypes, the modern women tend to be whiney, and the ancestral love story begins with the much-used, over-used device of a woman dressing up in men's clothing in order to have an adventure. (Mulan, set in Egypt.) Except for some beautiful descriptions of the Sinai desert, there is nothing to recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Several Books in One
Review: Ahdaf Soueif is a brilliant writer. In the Map of Love, she successfully takes the reader back and forth in time like I have not experienced before. Not only the book is a great romance, it is a delicate description of the history of Egypt viewed through the eyes and minds of Egypt's National leaders during the late 1800's -early 1900's. Socially and culturally, the book is a good comparison between East and West; A delicate issue but very well written by Soueif. I strongly recommend the Map of Love and hope it will be a 'turning point experience' as it was for me.
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