Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany

Same as his, The Yacoubian Building, this book have a variety of characters from all walks of life. Story is set in the campus of the University of Illinois Medical Center some time after 11th Sept.

Among them :-

-Graham, a professor who is having a relationship with an African-American woman

-Carol, Graham's girlfriend who is faced with racial prejudice

-Shaymaa an educated Egyptian whose chances of getting married in her homeland is low hence she came to America to get her PhD but found love instead

-Tariq is a good catch for all prospective brides except for a slightly deficit in him.

-Ra'fat, an Egyptian emigrate who is faced with tough problem in communicating with his Americanize daughter

-Danana- a despicable Egyptian state Security informant  who uses religious doctrines to get his way in life.

Marwa- Danana's suffering wife.

Nagi- an Egyptian student who came here to study in order to finance his literary aspiration but he seems to be in a fight with everyone that he met

I bought this book a few months ago but could not get through the first chapter coz the paragraph seems to be so long winded. However, I decided to give this book another chance after reading The Yacoubian Building which I liked. Am so glad that I did coz in my opinion, this book is even better than The Yacoubian Building.

Once I got through the first chapter, the rest of the book went well.

The plot is brilliant. The author would tell the story of one character and stopped at the right moment to keep the suspense high before going on to the story of another character. This kept me reading. Started reading this at 11.30pm last night and finished this book at 5am this morning.

Should you decide to read this book, do keep an open mind. It touches on religion. Some people maybe offended by the way some characters being portray.

It made me feel angry at the treatment received by of some women here. Being manipulated by the men. However, I won't fault the author as the ability of the author to evoke a range of feeling in his/hers readers for me is the mark of a good author.

I had a great time reading this book. Hope to get my hand on more of his books.