Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali

Author:Waguih Ghali [Ghali;, Waguih]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-0-8041-7075-8
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2014-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

I was wrong to think caressing Shirley’s body was the climax to that day. There was another end to it when I returned to the hotel.

I slipped away from Shirley’s house quietly, early in the morning, without waking anyone. I went to Edna’s room as soon as I reached the hotel.

‘I’ve been unfaithful to you,’ I said.

‘I know,’ she said.

‘Aren’t you jealous?’

‘Do you want me to be?’

‘I want you to be passionately jealous and threaten suicide and weep and lament and … isn’t there another word similar to weep and lament? … and strew ashes over yourself. Edna, what was the idea behind these Biblical people who strewed ashes over themselves when they were unhappy?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said.

‘Edna, what is this? What is happening to me? I am Egyptian and have lived in Egypt all my life and suddenly I am here, and at the end of three weeks I have slid into this strange life where I meet a girl and think it natural to go to bed with her at the end of the day, under the same roof as her brother and mother and Paddy, and find it natural they find it natural that she sleeps with me if she wants to. Such things don’t happen in Egypt, so how can I come here and live in an entirely different manner and yet feel I have been living like this all my life? What will happen to me when I go back to Egypt? Have you ever met my friends Yehia and Jameel and Fawzi? I’m not going to apologize for having spent the night with Shirley. You don’t love me and I don’t in the least feel guilty about it. I haven’t slept much and am rather tired; perhaps that’s why I want to speak the truth. Look, Edna; don’t attribute to me qualities I don’t possess. I just like to gamble and drink and make love and no matter what act I put on, you should know the truth.’

‘I’ve told you before, Egyptians are not found in Cairo or in Alexandria,’ she said. ‘You’ve never really known Egyptians. I hate Egyptians of your class as much as I do my parents.’

‘What am I, then, if I am not Egyptian?’

‘You are what you are; and that is a human being who was born in Egypt, who went to an English public school, who has read a lot of books, and who has an imagination. But to say that you are this or that or Egyptian, is nonsense.’

‘What are you, Edna?’

‘I can’t be generalized about either, except that I was born Jewish. But the difference between you and me is that I know Egyptians and love them.’

‘Edna,’ I said, ‘you said I was well read and had an imagination. I’m also intelligent. Intelligent enough to know you are not in love with me …’

‘That’s the second time you’ve said I don’t love you.’

‘… and to wonder,’ I went on, ‘why you befriended Font and me and why you are being so generous to both of us.

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