Max RodenbeckCritiques

En El Cairo. La ciudad victoriosa (Almed ), su autor, Max Rodenbeck , confiesa que desde que pisó por vez primera el lugar se sintió seducido por él hasta el punto de manifestar que experimentó la comodidad de quien camina a gusto con unos zapatos viejos. Su acierto radica en que supo penetrar en el espíritu y exponer los acontecimientos. Amó su resistencia a incontables desastres y escribe que «a lo largo de cinco milenios de reencarnaciones, El Cairo había dejado de lamentar su declive y, sin embargo, la ciudad había resistido». No duda que El Cairo nunca ha vendido ni su dignidad ni su alma. «Después de todo, explica, éste es el lugar que dio al mundo el mito del ave fénix».

Magnificent book about the history of Cairo. Actually, I found the book better than the real thing.

Pg 21 — city's ceaseless urban racket casts an amnesiac spell — easy to forget how close the utter empty silence of the desert lies.
lure of Cairo — old as place itself.
Arabs think of Cairo as repository of Arabness
largest library, biggest newspaper, vibrant pop culture — busiest camel market, great university
Arab tourists rarely bother w/ antiquities
necropolis — underground cemetaries

From a noted journalist who has spent much of his life in Cairo, here is a dazzling cultural excavation of that most ancient, colorful, and multifaceted of cities. The seat of pharaohs and sultans, the prize of conquerors from Alexander to Saladin to Napoleon, Cairo--nicknamed "the Victorious"--has never ceased reinventing herself.

With intimate knowlege, humor, and affection, Rodenbeck takes us on an insider's tour of the magnificent city: its backstreets and bazaars, its belly-dance theaters and hashish dens, its crowded slums and fashionable salons, its incomparably rich past and its challenging future. Cairo: The City Victorious is a unique blend of travel and history, an epic, resonant work that brings one of the world's great metropolises to life in all its dusty, chaotic beauty.