From the tumultuous nineteen sixties comes this fascinating memoir of Jewish life in predominantly Muslim Egypt. The entertaining and captivating narration recounts many aspects of a culturally rich, colorful and diverse society. Interwoven with the narration are details of intriguing and fascinating historical events, making the work both informative and highly entertaining. While this memoir evokes the anxieties of the Jewish community in this strong anti-Israeli climate, it also recounts stories of the mostly kind and tolerant, but at times hostile and xenophobic - majority. It is a colorful, engaging and intellectually stimulating depiction of the author's life in the midst of a society fervently embracing a re-invigorated national pride, and doing so at the expense of its multi-ethnic character.
From inside the book:
By order of the government of the United Arab Republic, this property and business have been seized and are now the property of the people. Dr. Sidney Gottlieb had arrived ... carrying a tube of toothpaste laced with poison. All that had to be done was to slip that tube of toothpaste into (his) room. We hacked them in pieces and put them into the acid. ...We were there two days. We did things an animal wouldn't do. And that's why we were drunk, stone drunk. He shoves the boy's hand away from him and proceeds to slap the boy's face several times as he pushes him down the steps and forcibly escorts him out of the building. Being an avowed communist, he is periodically hauled off to jail. Four Israeli prisoners had been allowed to attend services. .....their noses were neither particularly long nor crooked. A man came from behind and put a black hood over his head..... In a swift motion, the executioner pulled the lever. With a dull thug, Mohsein's body dropped and dangled at the end of the rope. Four hundred and seventy ... entered the famous Citadel. Only one is known to have escaped.