Books by Albert Cossery
language
English
review 1: Well done and intelligent "literary" fiction set in Egypt not long after WW2: the atomic bomb is mentioned, TV is not. Provides entree into a life very foreign to Americans, "genteel" poverty, intellect and destitution combined. A former professor, now content to take hashish and...
language
English
review 1: The idea of fighting a despot with laughter interested me, along with the contrast between "joker" Heykal and "revolutionary" Taher. But I couldn't get on board with this running thread of obsession with girlhood/perceived innocence that ran throughout the book. The undercurrent ...
language
English
review 1: Cossery, Albert (1913-2008). A SPLENDID CONSPIRACY. (pub. in 1975 as “Un Complot de Saltimbauques” in France; this ed. 2010). ****. Cassery was a well-known writer in Europe and the Middle East, but was practically unknown in this country. He wrote eight novels during his ca...
language
English
review 1: This is a short little novel with an irresistible premise. A group of loutish prankster-revolutionaries decide to launch a campaign against their hated governor, a combination of King Farouk, Silvio Berlusconi, and Hafez al-Assad (seen on the front cover). Instead of trying to ki...