Reading Soueif's Cairo: My City, Our Revolution

Egypt was reported to be a bloodbath this morning...I ate dinner close to the window so I could get a strong signal while I listened to Democracy Now! The children across the alley were playing soccer on their balcony while Sharif Abdel Kouddous reported that after Morsi's ouster, Egypt's unity is more fragile than ever. The death toll continues to rise to 51 as clashes escalate between the Egyptian army and pro-Morsi protesters. 

When I was in Palermo in March, 2011, my friends and I ate dinner by this window, listening to reports of Egypt celebrating the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's long and cruel reign. Cairo's revolutionary narrative cannot be contained by a chronological or straightforward idea of progress. Egypt's democracy continues to be written and we are all implicated. After dinner, I return to Ahdaf Soueif's Cairo: My City,Our Revolution, a diary, a testimony, a journal of Cairo's 18 day revolution in 2011 that defies ordinary conventions for telling a story and remembering a past. If you read it, you'll see.