Taxi (book)

infobox Book |
name = Taxi (Cabbie Talk)
title_orig = Taxi (Hawadit al-mashawir)
translator = Jonathan Wright


image_caption =
author = Khaled Al Khamissi
cover_artist =
country = Egypt
language = English
series =
genre = Short Story
publisher = Aflame Book, London
release_date = 2008
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 184 pages
isbn = ISBN 978-1906300029

"Taxi" is a collection of 58 short stories by Khaled Al Khamissi, first published in 2007.

A book dedicated "To the life that lives in the words of poor people." [Khaled Al Khamissi, in "Taxi (Hawadit al-mashawir)"] Taxi is a journey of urban sociology in the Egyptian capital through the voices of taxi drivers. A collection of short stories that tell dreams, adventures philosophical love, lies, memories and politics. The Egyptian taxi drivers are kind of singers who, with ease, lead the reader into a maze of reality and poetry that is Egypt today. "Taxi is an articulate and entertaining critical to society and Egyptian policy," said Mark Linz, director of American University in Cairo, "is unique because it uses a good dose of humour to deal with topics that usually Egyptians reserve extreme seriousness."

Writing

"Taxi" is the first Egyptian book of success written for three quarters in dialect. A tradition of dialect has always existed in Islam since the beginning differentiation between classical Arabic, protected by the sanctity of Koran, and Arabic dialect, subject to the evolution of all languages. The dialect, however, has never really found a literary consecration. Recently Mohamed Salah al-'Azab, Ahmed al-Aidi, Ahmed Naghi, Tareq Imam and Nail al-Tokhi, a young generation of authors Arabs, triggered a recent literary movement, deeply innovator, currently known as "al-Riwaya al-Gadida"(The New Novel), linked to the phenomenon of bloggers. In this context "Taxi" is an important literary consecration because it has become a bestseller, reprinted 7 times in a year, more than 75,000 copies sold in a country, Egypt, where 3,000 copies are considered a success. And this with the causes and consequences of the socio-political issues related to the burst of dialect in the Egyptian contemporary literature.

Reviews

The book has received some positive reviews:
*"It's a book about the petty, daily frustrations of Egypt's working poor as they scratch out a living in the almost unworkable metropolis of Cairo. It's a book to make you feel guilty you ever tried to bargain down a cab fare in any poor country." [Chicago Tribune]
*"A novel that dresses down sharp social and political commentaries into the simple words of work-a-day taxi drivers, a rather daring approach here as censorship is a real issue. But his daring has sent the book flying off shelves." [The Christian Science Monitor]
*"Taxi"'s brilliance is that it captures the point at which cabs cease to be just a means of transportation and instead become a space for debate and exchange." [Foreign Policy]
*"Taxi"'s plucksstartling beauty and poetry out of the cacophony of everyday life. Khaled Al Khamissi reawakens our dulled sense of wonder, outrage, and sorrow, and that is anawesome achievement." [Baheyya.blogspot.com]

Notes & References

External links

* [http://www.shorouk.com Arabic version]
* [http://www.aflamebooks.com/Titles/029Taxi.html English version]
* [http://www.sirente.it/9788887847147/taxi-khaled-al-khamissi.html Italian version]
* [http://www.taxitalks.com Official site]