While I can appreciate that this book might have shocked readers in 1960s Egypt, I would say that it's only worth reading today purely for historical interest. ( )

“In this novella, during the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser, a young Egyptian writer who had been a political prisoner is released, and he takes a look at the street life in his country.” It has been called Egypt's first post modernist novel.

Like his protagonist, the author had been imprisoned in his native Egypt for five years. When political affiliations changed and Egypt befriended Russia, those imprisoned due to being communists were freed.

We follow the protagonist's first person stream of consciousness in this thankfully very short book as he also has been released from prison under very similar circumstances.

While he was imprisoned, his communist idealizations have become almost commonplace, so his burning drive for change has been removed.

He wanders the streets and neighborhoods of Cairo finding everything different but unchanged, the people unmotivated, uninterested and uninteresting.

“That smell” is the smell of a fart; unacknowledged by the people in the room, but still unavoidably there.

This book was banned and confiscated after the initial printing in Egypt for being “too sexual” although sex outside of masturbation never happens.

The “Notes From Prison” were very short notes that he had written on cigarette papers and had smuggled out. Some of these detail the books he read such as Hemingway and also his desire to become a writer.

This is probably going to be my least favorite novel of the year. Since it was part of a literature seminar, I slogged through. ( )