While the content of this novel is certainly interesting, the choice of narrator occludes important details. There is no real narrative force that pushes the beginning forward. Honestly, for such a short novel, Chronicle of a Last Summer really drags.

Time goes on, and the narrator ages, but the narration remains rather bland. For a literary novel, there is no extra special care for the detail of the prose. For me, if a novel doesn't have a strong plot, interesting characters, or stellar prose - really, none of these - what's the point in reading?

The only thing I came away from this novel with is the reminder that I don't know that much about Egypt in that part of history. I would love to read an exciting novel about that, one with interesting characters and lively prose. Basically, I want a different book. ( )

This was a short intriguing story. I came across it while wandering my library's catalog. I was looking for reading on The Arab Spring. I know the bare bones of this uprising, and hoped this book would enlighten me a bit more. This was, unfortunately, not the case.

The book is separated into 3 parts, narrated by an unnamed girl as she passes through nearly 30 years of life on the Nile, in Cairo. The narration begins in the summer of 1984 at 6 years old, jumping to college years in the summer of 1998 in part two and ending in adulthood in 2014. Part one is told not only through a child's eyes, but in a child's voice. This seemed to bother a lot of readers. I may be the odd man out here, but I enjoyed this section the most.

Upon further reflection: This book was meant for someone with experience or deeper knowledge than I have about what exactly happened in Egypt. I was lost at points, never really sure why or how certain events occurred. The following blurb on the GRMP makes me think this was intentional, ... "she wonders about the silences that have marked and shaped her life." so I do not blame the author for my ignorance on the subject.

NOTE: I am throwing in a half star for all of you who love beautiful writing and Literary Fiction. This Author has a heart full of talent. For you e-readers she has an "e-book only" [b:The Battle for Egypt|11864909|The Battle for Egypt|Yasmine El Rashidi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414947651l/11864909._SX50_.jpg|16821858], which at 69 pages, is short enough for you to fit in before reading this to gain knowledge of The Arab Spring which apparently I am missing. ( )

rabck from J4Shaw; An Egpytian girl's three pivotal summers across 3 decades. I didn't follow the events in Egypt (heck - I didn't know that it was a British protectorate), so head over to wikipedia first and read the history of the 1900's onward, and the book will make much more sense. Although written as fiction (perhaps to give her poetic license?), the book reads more like an autobiography of the political and cultural climate of the summers and how that affects her. ( )

I listened to the audiobook version of this, read by the author herself. Unfortunately she read it in a monotone, and the writing itself was rather wooden to begin with. There are some interesting looks into daily life in Cairo in the 1980s, 90s and 2010s, with an emphasis on the perils of living under a dictatorship. She spends a lot of time discussing her father's absence of a few decades and final return, but does not make clear exactly where he was; she seems not to have been very curious where he was- didn't she ask around? That country is full of gossipers. Fortunately, it's short- about four and a half hours of listening; if it were any longer I wouldn't have finished it. ( )

I really wanted to like this book and hoped that it would help me understand better the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt. However, the author assumes way too much from a reader that has little background in Arab culture, history, language, or customs. I don't mind an occasional foreign word to express something that hopefully I can figure out from the context, but there is just too much in this.
Told in three parts, the first part being told from the viewpoint of a young girl and the writing is made up of short simple sentences which were just unreadable at parts.
Maybe this is a brave effort, but it almost escaped me entirely. ( )