Books | Review: “Lyrics Alley”

(Image: Daniel Pudles)

Set in 1950’s Sudan, Lyrics Alley is the story of the powerful, sprawling Abuzeid dynasty. With Mahmoud Beh at its helm, the family can do no wrong. But when Mahmoud’s son Nur – the brilliant heir to his business empire – suffers a near-fatal accident, his hopes for a glittering future are dashed. 

Lyrics Alley is the third novel by Leila Aboulela after Minaret and the Translator. Even though her previous work attracted considerable attention, this book seems to have slipped under the radar. This is understandable, because while the author displayed increasing maturity in dealing with her characters compared with the one-dimensionality of characters in the Translator, the story line remains fragmented and with too many focal points.

Loosely based on the author’s own family history, the book seeks to chronicle the fortunes and misfortunes of the Abuzeid family from the steady rise of their business empire to the sudden and tragic illness of the family’s bright son Nur. Against the backdrop of a tender love story Nur shared with his cousin Soraya, his illness seems all the more excessive and iniquitous. Yet, one would be forgiven for not realizing that this is indeed the main, or at least the most coherent, story in the book.

The Author’s Note and Acknowledgement at the end of the book certainly points to the above conclusion. Nonetheless, Aboulela spent a considerable amount of effort telling the story of Omdurman in the 1950s through Egyptian eyes, while simultaneously, and almost naturally, comparing it to a more sophisticated Cairo. I think it was this attempt to provide an Egyptian account of what Sudan was at the time that led the author to indulge with what appears to be superfluous characters in the story like the Egyptian teacher Badr and his family. By comparison, and while the character of Nur’s Egyptian step-mother – his father’s second wife – was sufficiently interesting and equally necessary for some of the discourse, Aboulela failed to bring her story to a convincing conclusion. In addition, one was left with the impression that the only Sudanese part of the story was the Abuzeid Saraya (Saraya itself not being a particularly Sudanese word) and the exchanges between the Abuzeid family members. All other Sudanese themes, including an impending independence, post-independence politics and the status of women in higher education were allowed to slide with the most superficial of mentions.

One of the most interesting characters in the story is that of Soraya. Aboulela uses her effectively in conveying Nur’s promise to begin with and then the extent of his illness later on in the story. Aboulela’s Soraya is complex and honest; in no way perfect, yet a genuine idea of a young Sudanese woman on the verge of modernity. Still, Aboulela treats her as an appendage of Nur’s, the moment he is forced to let her go forever is the exact moment we lose insight into her life.

There were indeed multiple flashes of genius in the novel, which lead me to insist that Aboulela’s best work is yet to come. One such passage is: “Yet now, walking in the twilight, Badr gained insight into the man’s psyche and saw, all too clearly, that it was not only the oppression of Turkish and Egyptian rule that prompted the Mahdist revolution, it was something in the very air and texture of Sudan itself. A place where reality was slippery and fantasy could take over the mind, a place of wayward spirituality, a place where the impossible and the romantic pulsed within reach. A place where tangible, inhuman forces still prevailed, not yet tamed and restrained by the rules of religion and men.”

Lyrics Alley
Leila Aboulela
Paperback
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Publishing Group (2010)