Beer in the Snooker Club (Vintage International)

Beer In The Snooker Club is a semi-autobiographical novel by the Egyptian writer Waguih Ghali written in English and first published in 1964. On the surface, the novel reads as a typical post-colonial novel; the Francophone, British educated Egyptian Coptic protagonists struggle with their conflicting allegiances to the English culture that produced and imposed colonialism, and to the Egyptian revolution that opposed colonialism but also implemented repressive domestic policies. The novel ultimately rejects the mediated binaries of post-coloniality, searching instead for a notion of cosmopolitan identity, defined both as a historically and locally situated urban subject and as a politically engaged 'citizen of the world'. "Set amidst the turbulence of 1950s Cairo, Beer in the Snooker Club is the story of Ram Bey, an over-educated, under-ambitious young Egyptian struggling to find out where he fits in. Ram's favorite haunt is the fashionable Cairo Snooker Club, whose members strive to emulate English gentility; but his best friends are young intellectuals who devour the works of Sartre and engage in dangerous revolutionary activities to support Egyptian independence. By turns biting and comic, Beer in the Snooker Club--the first and only book by Waguih Ghali--became a cult classic when it was first published and remains a timeless portrait of a loveable rogue coming of age in turbulent times."--Page [4] of cover Set amidst the turbulence of 1950s Cairo, Beer in the Snooker Club is the story of Ram Bey, an over-educated, under-ambitious young Egyptian struggling to find out where he fits in. Ram’s favorite haunt is the fashionable Cairo Snooker Club, whose members strive to emulate English gentility; but his best friends are young intellectuals who devour the works of Sartre and engage in dangerous revolutionary activities to support Egyptian independence. By turns biting and comic, Beer in the Snooker Club — the first and only book by Waguih Ghali — became a cult classic when it was first published and remains a timeless portrait of a loveable rogue coming of age in turbulent times. About the Author......Page 2 Title Page......Page 3 Copyright......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Introduction......Page 6 Part I......Page 16 Part II......Page 45 Part III......Page 106 Part IV......Page 139 Part V......Page 155