Rating: 
Summary: The past in not over....
Review: "The Map of Love", a splendid work of fiction, is another example of Faulkner's comment that "te past is not past" (or wods to that effect). Although I was a good student of history, and lived in Egypt for 5 years in the '60's, this is the experience which has given me a full understanding of modern Egyptian history and thinking. It has rounded out the picture for me. And Soueif has done this in the context of a gripping tale whose characters have come to live in my head as much as Scarlet and Rhett, Hamlet and Oedipus,Dorothea Brooke, Ulysses, Isabel Archer and hosts of other literary figures. She uses the device of a tale within a tale. Isabel Parkman discovers in her dying mother's trunk a cache of letters, papers, objects, many in Arabic. She is a photojournalist, going to Egypt, and she is directed to take the trunk to Egypt with her and bring it to the sister of a an Egyptian conductor she met in New York. The woman, Amal el-Ghamrawi is intigued and together they begin to sort out the letters and discover that they are 2d cousins. The writers of the letters are Isabel's great-grandmother, Anna Winterbourne el Baroudi and Amal's great-aunt, Layla . And between them they bring to light the social and political history of Egypt 100 years ago. We, or at least I, come to understand the inherest wickedness and arrogance of imperialism and colonialism. Despite, or perhaps because of, my admiration for the English, I wonder at how many good people, both leaders and others, can subvert their humanity to support a political system which they must know is wrong. Of course such behavior is not unique to one country or one time, but it is dismaying to see that the problems of 1900 are unresolved and ongoing. The narrative shifts between Anna and Layla in the early 20th C. and Amal in modern day Cairo. The life of women behind the veil is recounted, unpolemically, both then and in it's contemporary resurgence in 21 C. Cairo. The contemporary love between Isabel and the conductor, a modern day Egyptian nationalist and Anna and Sharif el Baroudi an early 20th C Egyptian nationalist play against each other. I found the contemporary couple less compelling than their ancestors. The personal and the political intrigues are well balanced and one finishes with great admiration for the earier strugglers for social and political change. Perhaps the contemporary characters are less sympathetic because of the sense of hopelessness one feels at the problems overwhelming Egypt today and the feeling one catches that nothing can change except for the worse. Nonetheless, you will long remember these people and events. I did not want the book to end and now I desparately want to know what happened to Nur and if Amal can resolve the mystery of the tapestry.
Rating: 
Summary: A for Effort; C for Results
Review: Lately I've been reading a lot and I notice how books fall into many categories, two of which are: the anorexic vs. the full-bodied. Anorexic books are poetic at best, but are so spare that one longs for the density more popular in novels in days gone by. "The Map of Love" is of the full-bodied variety, teeming with times, places, characters, dates, all of which are mixed together making a hearty brew that, though often confusing, gets an A+ for effort. Because, as Natalie Goldberg admonishes us writers, one must give one's all and Soueif is never guilty of withholding, of playing coy or of cutting her text to extreme slices of lapidary prose. On the other hand, writing the embodied book is a challange, one which, this time, doesn't work. Readers are distanced not made intimate through Soueif's cauldron of images. There are so many complications to track on reading this and therefore the text doesn't hold one's attention easily. I will now read her last book, which I understand is more "of a piece." This is a writer to keep watching, that much is for sure.
Rating: 
Summary: An effort to finish
Review: I haven't read a book in a long time that I just wanted to give up on. I felt like it had a huge political agenda, which was very confusing to me and not of much interest. The names were very difficult to keep up with as well as the history. I finally finished it out of sheer determination. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless you are from Egypt, then you might grasp it's meaning.
Rating:
Summary: a new favorite
Review: I wouldn't say this book is for everyone but I loved it. It flows between characters, times and languages. There are really 2 stories here, both equally interesting and magical. The summary on the back of the book focuses mostly on the American woman, Isabel, and her discovery of the journals of her English great-grandmother, Anna. However, the story, was more about the Egyptian characters and Anna. Isabel is almost a minor character. The modern Amal becomes nearly obsessed with her grandmother, Layla, and great-aunt, Anna, through the journals. The story involves quite a bit of politics of the region which I found amazing and informative but some might find a bore or confusing. The love stories and stories of sisterhood are illustrated wonderfully on this political and cultural backdrop. One more note is that if keeping track of many names and the constant use of Arabic words mixed into the English may bother you, I wouldn't choose this book. Otherwise, I definately would.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read!
Review: I chose this book on since I had heard that it was short listed for the Booker Prize. I ordinarily would not read something that is akin to a 'romance' book. However, I was impressed by Ms. Soueif's writing of the two intertwining tales. It was hard to follow at first, made sense after reading it for a while.The arabic text was great in the book since I have a rudimentary understanding of the language. I do think that it would turn off someone who did not have any knowledge of the language though. I felt that Ms. Soueif captured the feelings of the time periods accurately and it is ironic that modern-day Egypt is seing a surge in nationalism just as it did at the turn of the century.
Rating:
Summary: Three and a half stars
Review: An Egyptian woman, Amal, and an American journalist named Isabel discover a shared family past which began almost a century ago with the marriage of Anna Winterbourne and Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi in turn of the 20th century Cairo. ****This premise is intelligently explored through Anna's journal entries and letters, and in Amal's gift for filling in where those primary sources are silent. The author herself is adept at painting Egypt's conflicted political and social identities in the 1900s, and their repercussions almost a century later. ****The central love story between Anna and Sharif Basha is given romantic but dignified attention. This is not a bodice-ripping epic. Echoes of their romance are played out in Isabel's relationship with Amal's brother, Omar, a charismatic but much-older musician living in New York City. ****"The Map of Love" is a thoughtful story with a strong sense of beauty and language. It's also a Booker Prize finalist and shares a structural complexity similar to 1992's "The English Patient " by Michael Ondaatje (which did receive the Booker Prize). Unlike the latter however, "The Map of Love" would translate as a decent TV miniseries rather than as a celebrated feature film.
Rating: 
Summary: Haunting--I loved it!!
Review: Being comfortable with "kitchen arabic" is certainly a help in navigating thru this book. It is a complex novel interwoven with beautiful prose, passionate political viewpoints, idealized romantic love(Lady Anna is downright saintly!)and warm descriptions of arabic/islamic family life across the generations. I was quite taken with this novel--lots of insights and delights--didn't want it to end. I thank the author for several lovely evenings!
Rating:
Summary: Highly Disappointing
Review: I was eager to read this book after reading the reviews, and knowing it was a Booker finalist. I found it so disappointing that I gave up about a third of the way through it. I found the plots implausible, the characters 2 dimensional, and the poetic descriptions of Egypt beautiful but pretentious. I also agree with other reviewers that the use of Arabic was distracting, and came across as the author trying to prove her superiority to the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: an indifferent work
Review: I bought this book knowing only that it had been shortlisted for the Booker prize. I was disappointed both in the plot and in the quality of the writing. Much of the writing affects a stilted style that reminds me of the way travel books tend to render the speech of natives in non-English speaking lands, vaguely foreign. The author throws in Arabic expressions for no apparent reason (I studied Arabic in college but still had to look up half of these expressions in the back of the book). The plot includes so many coincidences as to be completely implausible. For example, the genealogy in the front clearly shows Isabel to be the great-granddaughter of an Egyptian basha...we find in the first chapter that she spent her junior year abroad in Egypt..yet she seems to have never thought during that year of contacting her Egyptian relatives, because if she had she would probably realize that the handsome Egyptian man she just met at a dinner party is actually her cousin! He sends Isabel to his sister in Egypt, who of course is also a cousin and they meet like complete strangers...yet by the next chapter they seem to be aware of the relationship...how did they find out, or why didn't they already know? Later we find out that the handsome man at the party used to be in love with Isabel's mother in another fairly ridiculous plot twist. The romance between Anna (Isabel's great-grandmother) and the Egyptian pasha is too overblown, romantic and contrived to be in the least believable. Basically, this seems to be not much more than a romance novel masquerading as literature, with a lot of extra political baggage thrown in. Reading this would be one way to pass an afternoon, but it's not very substantial.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting romance
Review: This novel transported me to another world. I, unfortunately, know very little of Egyptian history or politics (except, of course, the pharoahs and the pyramids) so I eagerly anticipated the final outcome of the story. The alternating narratives were hard to follow at first, but once I figured out the characters and typeface, the voices beacame clear. I longed for more detail of the romantic aspect of Anna and Sharif's love affair. I found myself wishing history could be played out differently. The only question I have is: How did Layla come to have the letters Anna wrote to Sir Charles?
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