Darwin Keck
Contributing Writer
“The Thief and the Dogs” by Naguib Mahfouz has a style like no other. This is a novel that looks at the concepts of seeking revenge and new paths through surrealism and the stream-of-consciousness writing style. The novel tells a story of delusion-driven revenge and the fatal consequences that follow, all written as an existentialist crime thriller.
“The Thief and the Dogs” stands out amongst the novels I’ve read in high school for a few reasons. For one, its subject doesn’t revolve around the traditional good versus evil trope. In fact, the novel depicts a morally gray, realistic scenario. The bitter ending signifies two clear messages about the overall story: the dangers of revenge and an allegorical critique of living under an authoritarian nation built by false promises.
The book follows Said Mahran, a convict released from prison who finds that his family and criminal mentors all turned on him during his stay in prison. Disillusioned by what he’s seen, Said embarks on a path with one goal in mind: revenge. During his journey, Said bonds with his new allies: Nur, a prostitute who’s in love with Said and relates to his problems, and the Sheikh, an elderly man who frequently offers advice. Both Nur and the Sheikh attempt to convince Said to stray from his path of revenge onto paths of love or forgiveness. While not a conventional plot, I find it interesting because Said is more of an anti-hero than a traditional, morally pure protagonist. He lacks any heroic qualities and is willing to kill to enact his revenge.
What also stood out to me was how the novel broke the classical literary structure, using the stream-of-consciousness style to convey both the external and internal conflicts that Said sees in his journey. It was as if I could hear and see Said’s mind battling with itself. He could relish in the joy of those who turned on him being killed, but would it all be worth it in the end?
The pacing was also splintered to explore Said’s motives, jumping back in time explaining past moments, before jumping back to the present. Because of the time jumps, I understood Said’s justifications and even sympathized with him. However, the novel evoked sadness when Said didn’t treat his new allies, Nur and the Sheikh, well. Even though Nur was in love with him, and the Sheikh encouraged him to forgive, Said ignored Nur’s love, and rejected the Sheikh’s advice.
The historical context adds even more intrigue to the novel — at the time that Mahfouz published his famous Cairo Trilogy, the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 overthrew the Egyptian monarchy, replacing it with an authoritarian Arab Republic government led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. For seven years, Mahfouz did not publish any novels because of the psychological shock from this Revolution, which he originally strongly supported because it aimed to fix societal woes. However, when Egypt transformed into an authoritarian Arab Republic, Mahfouz became disillusioned. Media censorship, a one-party state, bureaucracy and corruption impacted Mahfouz’s psychological state. As he wanted to criticize Nasser’s regime, his writing style had to change, leading to the stream-of-consciousness that is evident in “The Thief and the Dogs.”
While Mahfouz wrote the novel to act as an allegory for his dissatisfaction with the new regime, I believe that he wrote the novel to do exactly what Mahfouz did before the revolution: criticize authority. The novel was critically acclaimed across Egypt and even received a movie adaptation in 1962 called “Chased by the Dogs.” Mafouz even was the first Arabic author to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.
Therefore, I strongly recommend “The Thief and the Dogs.” The story itself is captivating, showing morally grey situations that many people would come across. I constantly asked myself if Said’s vengeance was justified or if he should’ve taken the Sheikh’s advice or even Nur’s love. The untraditional narrative structure and stream of consciousness writing style immersed me into Said’s mind and his past, which made him all the more relatable. Not only does the book provide a warning about pursuing revenge, but it allows readers to understand history from a literary perspective, as it provides an insight to how people lived under totalitarian regimes or in times of conflict.