If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English: A Novel by Noor Naga

Author:Noor Naga
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Literary, General, African American & Black, Fiction
ISBN: 9781644451717
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 2022-04-11T21:00:00+00:00

[All laugh.]

minnie

No, really. I know you all think I have a problem with every submission, but that’s not true. No, seriously—

instructor

Guys, let her finish, please.

[They quiet down.]

minnie

I mean, part 1 was structurally weird enough, what with no paragraphs and the perspective flipping back and forth . . . It was really hard to follow, plotwise, and just left so many questions unanswered— literally—these questions that have nothing to do with the actual events, and I know Noor wanted it to be—

instructor

Hey, hey, let’s try not assigning intent this time.

minnie

Okay, well, whatever the intention, it just feels unnecessary. Like, I get it. She’s trying to experiment with form. But you can’t be swapping voices that frequently and jumping around temporally and then also have these koan-riddles at the top of every page. Why are we even getting his voice in your memoir? [to NOOR] How does that even make sense? You in the boy’s head like that when the whole point is that you don’t fully get each other, you’re from different worlds, et cetera . . . You said last time you were trying to humanize him, but honestly, for me, all these alarm bells start going off, like I just become suspicious. And I know you. If I didn’t, like if I just picked this up at a bookstore . . . it’s asking a lot from readers you’ve never met. Especially when there are logistical obstacles and inconsistencies we’re expected to just swallow, like: How do you know he was stalking you if in the memoir you didn’t know he was stalking you? Same thing with the drugs and rape-fantasies. You said he made up things about Cairo and his family all the time just to mess with you, but then you carry on reporting what you heard so we don’t know what to believe, like, are we getting the factchecked version or . . . ? Everything is potentially tainted—especially when the footnotes come in. Obviously, I’m not trying to tell you about your own culture, but I googled a few of them and—

instructor I don’t mean to interrupt you, Minnie, but we did talk about the footnotes last time, and also the alternating voices. I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on the third part, the last part.

minnie I’m getting there, I swear. [INSTRUCTOR puts his hands up in playful surrender.] My whole point is just that in parts 1 and 2, having to maintain this level of skepticism the whole time . . . you’re really hoping for a big, fat payoff as a reader. To justify all that labor, you know? I was waiting on the third part to bring everything together, give me that aha moment, but in the end . . . I just found myself even more confused. I don’t mean to sound rude, but why were you grieving so much? There was so much guilt, and I kept thinking, Am I missing something? Did I misread the balcony scene? Did you push him or something? I kept—

laura [under her breath] Wow.

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