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Title: Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth A Novel
ISBN: 0385499094
Author:
Naguib Mahfouz
Tagreid Abu-Hassabo
Publicate Date: 2000-04-04
Publish: 2000-04-04
List Price: $12.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Utterly Fanciful
It is difficult to determine what this novel is trying to be. As a piece of historical fiction it is utterly fanciful. Writers of historical novels must always choose from the evidence available to support their literary interpretation of history. In this case, however, Mahfouz (an otherwise talented writer) blatantly ignores the weight of historical evidence. Among other things, Akhenaten did not invent a new god. He decided that the worship of the Aten (a manifestation of the sun god Re) should prevail over Egypt's other gods. The city of Akhetaten was not abandoned before Akhenaten's death (at least it is extremely unlikely that this was the case). Evidence suggests that Tutankhamun initially reigned from Akhetaten. As these events are pivotal to the narrative rewriting the evidence is perhaps forgivable, but a historical novel must at least attempt to be true to the ideas of the period. What we have in this novel is the imposition of modern ideas such as freedom of worship, personal faith in God etc. onto the ancient world. These concepts had no place in the religion of ancient Egypt. Even if we allow that Akhenaten had experienced an epiphany which allowed him to create these ideas, the story hinges on them being part of the fabric of ancient Egyptian thinking.
It is possible that the novel is not really trying to be a piece of historical fiction. Assuming Akhenaten did hold deep religious convictions that differed from the mainstream of his time, the conception of the novel, as a set of interviews with both enemies and friends, is a potentially interesting way to explore the trials of someone in his situation. On this level the novel holds some interest, but the viewpoints expressed are somewhat simplistic. The idea has potential, but it just doesn't quite work.
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2: DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE
AKHETATEN: DWELLER IN TRUTH is a deceptively simple novel that bears more than one reading. Its ancient Egyptian narrator, Meriamun, sets out to discover the truth of Akhenaten's rule soon after the heretical pharoah has died, but while many of his contemporaries are still alive. With a letter of introduction from his influential father, he interviews the High Priest of Amun, the god abolished by Akhenaten, and Haremhab, the chief of state security, both of whom had reason to oppose the new pharoah; also Meri-Ra, the high priest of the new religion; Ay the Sage, Akhenaten's councelor and father of Nefertiti; and several others, including a woman from the harem. Each interview forms a chapter, and each contemporary tells a different version of the same events. As we read from chapter to chapter, we see these events shifting and revolving around the enigmatic role of Nefertiti, Akhenaten's beautiful wife, whom the narrator saves for the last and longest interview.
The whole thing might be merely a clever literary play, a variation on the device of Akutagawa's story "In a Grove" (a device made famous by the movie "Roshomon"), in which different eyewitness accounts of a murder are mutually contradictory and impossible to reconcile, leaving one to wonder about the truth of any event; save that in this story one event is historically certain. It is that Akhenaten promulgated a revolutionary doctrine of monotheism, abolished the other gods and caused the ruin of the state. Therefore the different viewpoints of his contemporaries reflect not just the difficulty of establishing fact from personal testimony, but the psychological reactions of individuals to a religious upheaval, reactions that in themselves undermine the project's chances for success. Akhenaten proclaimed the One and Only God, the Sole Creator, a god of love, non-violence and non-resistance, and these friends and foes, voicing attitudes that range from acceptance and adoration to outrage and murderous resentment, demonstrate that the policy of "all you need is love" is foredoomed.
Mahfouz's writing is spare and elegant, and the translation is neat and clean, though littered with modern terms and concepts that are clearly anachronistic. Yet it appears that the author does not seek so much to recreate the particularity of ancient times as to engage in an Egyptian daydream as plain and unadorned as the pyramids and desert sands. However, those pyramids and sands are deceptive, and much can be found underneath. It would be interesting, for example, to explore how much Mahfouz drew from historical sources and how much he invented whole cloth. Also I wonder about the original Arabic, whether it has the word "Allah" standing in the places where we read "God." If so, it may be that this story of a prophet and his universal god makes a comment on Islam as well as on revelation, religious worship and brotherly love in general.
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3: Good, but still a bit flat
I liked and didn't like this book. Maybe something got lost in translation, but I don't think that's the only reason I found it a bit flat.
I like the format: interview all the main players, and some minor ones, who surrounded the "heretic" Pharaoh Akhenaten during his rule and downfall. Each tells the story from his or her viewpoint, and soon the reader realizes that almost every narrator is colouring the story to make him or herself look good. You begin to read subsequent narrations sceptically, and start trying to piece together the "real" story. This is Mahfouz's intention: to let the reader decide whose version is "right."
This "tailoring" of the story is most clear in the stories of the political players -- characters like the High Priest of Amun, or Horemhab, or Ay. If the reader knows that both Ay and Horemhab (or Horemheb) became Pharaohs in their turn after Tutankhamun died, the eyebrows are raised pretty high at these men's protestation of devotion to Akhenaten, and their claims that they only abandoned him to save his life and save the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the ones who don't seem to tailor their story are the fervent believers. Toto, a priest of Amun who infiltrated Akhenaten's court, couldn't care less how he comes across; he's just so sure of his own righteousness that he barrels along, spewing hatred with every breath. Meri-Ra, who had been high priest of Akhenaten's god, still believes in that god. This is potentially dangerous, so one suspects that he, too, is being honest. The reader feels that these two, at least, might give some clue to the "real" story, if only their accounts can be reconciled.
The blurb on the book claims that "Akhenaten emerges as a charismatic enigma," but in fact it is Nefertiti whose role is most intriguing. Every narrator has an opinion about her, positive or negative, and opinions about her faith or lack of it, her fidelity or lack of it, and so on. Every narrator acknowledges that she was very politically astute, but everything else is left open. More and more, the reader looks forward to the final interview, with Nefertiti herself.
And here's where I had the problem. Meri-Ra, Akhenaten's hight priest, tells the interviewer, "You did not start this journey for no reason." I expected that not only would there be some climax of informtion during the interview with Nefertiti, but that we would learn something pertinent about the interviewer himself. I actually suspected we might find out that he was Moses (even though the timeline would have been somewhat off).
Yet nothing happened. Nefertiti, like all the others, told her story, made herself look good, and didn't resolve anything or bring up any intriguing twist to make the reader rethink anything. So the entire book was narration. stop. narration. stop. narration. stop. final stop. The exercise was interesting, to watch so many people describe the same events so differently. But in the end, it just dropped flat.
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4: Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth
If you are interested in Egyptian history, particularly the enigmatic Akhenaten -- the pharoah who attempted to convert his people to mono-theism -- you will enjoy this novel. Interesting theory, even if you don't agree with the premise. Mahfouz's writing is, as always, excellent.
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5: A Before Christ Christ-like Pharoah?
In translation, and in concept, the notion of considering an Egyptian Pharaoh as a human being; a visionary, a lunatic, a passionate priest, a meglomaniac, depending on whom you ask, is somehow counter-intuitive. This dychotomy, that of the ancients' as individuals is substantively what makes Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth an interesting work by a master writer.
The mention of Citizen Kane (in an above review) as a similarly executed story is apt, as we read the opinions and experiences of the "Heretic" Pharaoh Akhenaten's attendants and family. Some praise and revere him, others deride and villanize him, all in an effort to shape an enigmatic and suspect historical figure.
The substance of Akhenaten's "heresy" is his praise of the God Aten over Amun, two of Egypt's poly-theistic dieties, and then his epiphany of the One and Only God. The notion of a mono-theistic Egypt is clearly a threat to the society, as well as a revolution, and the ensuing reactions of those around him is the tale told here.
I would say, that while Akhenaten is an interesting figure, one I'd never heard of, he remains a historical mystery to me. His place is never regarded in any wider context here, certainly on purpose, but that omission dries the story for me. As do the similar characterizations of Akhenaten by the various voices that describe him. In this I wondered if the passion and the depth were perhaps lost in translation. That's not to say I didn't get the world of the Pharaoh's, their queens and families, their court and behavior. Only that it didn't captivate me.
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