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The Innocence of the Devil
Nawal El Saadawi's books are known for their powerful denunciation of patriarchy in its many social, political, and religious. Set in an insane asylum, The Innocence of the Devil is a complex and chilling novel that recasts the relationships of God and Satan, of good and evil. Intertwining the lives of two young women as they discover their sexual and emotional powers, Saadawi weaves a dreamlike narrative that reveals how the patriarchal structures of Christianity and Islam are strikingly physical violation of women is not simply a social or political phenomenon, it is a religious one as well.
While more measured in tone than Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses , Saadawi's novel is similar in its linguistic, literary, and philosophical richness. Evoking a world of pain and survival that may be unfamiliar to many readers, it speaks in a universal voice that reaches across cultures and is the author's most potent weapon.
While more measured in tone than Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses , Saadawi's novel is similar in its linguistic, literary, and philosophical richness. Evoking a world of pain and survival that may be unfamiliar to many readers, it speaks in a universal voice that reaches across cultures and is the author's most potent weapon.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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About the author
Nawal El Saadawi
115 books3,528 followersNawal El Saadawi (Arabic: نوال السعداوي) was born in 1931, in a small village outside Cairo. Unusually, she and her brothers and sisters were educated together, and she graduated from the University of Cairo Medical School in 1955, specializing in psychiatry. For two years, she practiced as a medical doctor, both at the university and in her native Tahla.
From 1963 until 1972, Saadawi worked as Director General for Public Health Education for the Egyptian government. During this time, she also studied at Columbia University in New York, where she received her Master of Public Health degree in 1966. Her first novel Memoirs of a Woman Doctor was published in Cairo in 1958. In 1972, however, she lost her job in the Egyptian government as a result of political pressure. The magazine, Health, which she had founded and edited for more than three years, was closed down.
From 1973 to 1978 Saadawi worked at the High Institute of Literature and Science. It was at this time that she began to write, in works of fiction and non-fiction, the books on the oppression of Arab women for which she has become famous. Her most famous novel, Woman at Point Zero was published in Beirut in 1973. It was followed in 1976 by God Dies by the Nile and in 1977 by The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World.
In 1981 Nawal El Saadawi publicly criticized the one-party rule of President Anwar Sadat, and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. She was released one month after his assassination. In 1982, she established the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, which was outlawed in 1991. When, in 1988, her name appeared on a fundamentalist death list, she and her second husband, Sherif Hetata, fled to the USA, where she taught at Duke University and Washington State University. She returned to Egypt in 1996.
In 2004 she presented herself as a candidate for the presidential elections in Egypt, with a platform of human rights, democracy and greater freedom for women. In July 2005, however, she was forced to withdraw her candidacy in the face of ongoing government persecution.
Nawal El Saadawi has achieved widespread international recognition for her work. She holds honorary doctorates from the universities of York, Illinois at Chicago, St Andrews and Tromso. Her many prizes and awards include the Great Minds of the Twentieth Century Prize, awarded by the American Biographical Institute in 2003, the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe and the Premi Internacional Catalunya in 2004. Her books have been translated into over 28 languages worldwide. They are taught in universities across the world.
She now works as a writer, psychiatrist and activist. Her most recent novel, entitled Al Riwaya was published in Cairo in 2004.
From 1963 until 1972, Saadawi worked as Director General for Public Health Education for the Egyptian government. During this time, she also studied at Columbia University in New York, where she received her Master of Public Health degree in 1966. Her first novel Memoirs of a Woman Doctor was published in Cairo in 1958. In 1972, however, she lost her job in the Egyptian government as a result of political pressure. The magazine, Health, which she had founded and edited for more than three years, was closed down.
From 1973 to 1978 Saadawi worked at the High Institute of Literature and Science. It was at this time that she began to write, in works of fiction and non-fiction, the books on the oppression of Arab women for which she has become famous. Her most famous novel, Woman at Point Zero was published in Beirut in 1973. It was followed in 1976 by God Dies by the Nile and in 1977 by The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World.
In 1981 Nawal El Saadawi publicly criticized the one-party rule of President Anwar Sadat, and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. She was released one month after his assassination. In 1982, she established the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, which was outlawed in 1991. When, in 1988, her name appeared on a fundamentalist death list, she and her second husband, Sherif Hetata, fled to the USA, where she taught at Duke University and Washington State University. She returned to Egypt in 1996.
In 2004 she presented herself as a candidate for the presidential elections in Egypt, with a platform of human rights, democracy and greater freedom for women. In July 2005, however, she was forced to withdraw her candidacy in the face of ongoing government persecution.
Nawal El Saadawi has achieved widespread international recognition for her work. She holds honorary doctorates from the universities of York, Illinois at Chicago, St Andrews and Tromso. Her many prizes and awards include the Great Minds of the Twentieth Century Prize, awarded by the American Biographical Institute in 2003, the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe and the Premi Internacional Catalunya in 2004. Her books have been translated into over 28 languages worldwide. They are taught in universities across the world.
She now works as a writer, psychiatrist and activist. Her most recent novel, entitled Al Riwaya was published in Cairo in 2004.
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October 15, 2022
الفن التجريدي فن يعتمد في الأداء على أشكال ونماذج مجردة تنأى عن مشابهة المشخصات و المرئيات في صورتها الطبيعية والواقعية. ويتميز بمقدرة وبقدرة الفنان على رسم الشكل الذي يتخيله سواء من الواقع أو الخيال في شكل جديد تماما قد يتشابه أو لا يتشابه مع الشكل الأصلي للرسم النهائي مع البعد عن الأشكال الهندسية
هذا حسب تعريف ويكيبيديا
و هكذا تفعل نوال
سواء فهمنا ما تقوله الأن أو فهمته أجيال ستأتى لاحقا
سواء استوعبنا ما وراء الكلمات التي تشبه الهذيان أحيانا و كأنها همهمات محموم أو مجنون أو فيلسوف أو ناسك متصوف أرهقه العطش و استبدت به قضيته حتى لم يعد يرى من الوجود إلا هي أو لم نستوعب ذلك
تجرد نوال الواقع و تفككه و تسقطه على الماضى و الحاضر و تستشرف المستقبل و تبث الشكوى و تحفر أكواد الثورة على جدران القهر و التمييز و تستحث المرأة على لتفكير و التمرد و تثير فيها روح التفرد و تراث العطاء
تبدو عبقرية حينما نفهمها و تبدو غامضة و مملة حينما تستغلق علينا الأفهام
نعم أنا متعصب لنوال كتعصب نوال للمرأة و سأقرأ ما تكتب حتى و ان بدا غريبا كهذه الرواية
September 6, 2013
صراحة نادمة كتيرا على كل كلمة شكر وإمتنان قلتها في حق نوال السعداوي .وعن دفاعي عنها بكل ما أوتيت من قوة لو ألفت كتابا لكي أعبر فيه عن ندمي لسببت أزمة ورق!!
إعتبرتها سيدة مناضلة؛متحررة ومتقفة هدفها الأساسي والرئيسي الدفاع عن حقوق المرأة والنهوض بها ،لا أنكر أنها تقوم بذلك لكن بطريقة عكسية،تشوه الصورة الحقيقية للمرأة أولأكون دقيقة تصب الماء في الزيت ....تود أن تخلق لدى المرأة أحاسيس الكراهية وعدم الرضى ...لا أعتبرها الطريقة المناسبة.الله سبحانه وتعاى في كتابه الشريف عزز المرأة وأعطاها من الحقوق ما لا يحصى ويعد .والرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم قام بذلك هو الآخر حين نجده يقول أمك تم أمك تم أمك فهذا في حد ذاته تكريم وحق من الحقوق .نحن لا نحتاج لمن يرد لنا حقوقنا فليس هناك والحمد لله أي حق مسلوب ولا منتهك! أنا لا أعتبر العري حق ؛التذخين حق ؛السكر حق....فإذا كانت تعني بتلك الحقوق العري......فهذه ليست حقوق ،في عصرنا الحالي أصبحنا نعتبر هذه الأشياء حقوق يجب على المرأة الحصول عليها وهذا ما جعلنا نلهت وراء الريح في حين أن الدول المتقدمة تطور مجالاتها المتعددة ...!
المهم وأنا أغوص وأتمعن صفحات هذه الرواية وجدت حقيقة ضاربة خولتني إلي أن أجزم وأقول أن نوال متطرفة .هذه شهادة إستنتجتها من طريقة سردها وتلفقيها أحداتا لا يمكن إستيعابها ،قامت وبكل جرأة وبسالة بإستخدام أيات قرأنية قامت بتحرفيها وذخلت في أمور غيبية كأوصاف الله ونعتته بأشياء لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله !!
وجدت روايتها هذه محض تخريف وهديان كما أنها مملة جدا
أدعو لها بالهداية!
إعتبرتها سيدة مناضلة؛متحررة ومتقفة هدفها الأساسي والرئيسي الدفاع عن حقوق المرأة والنهوض بها ،لا أنكر أنها تقوم بذلك لكن بطريقة عكسية،تشوه الصورة الحقيقية للمرأة أولأكون دقيقة تصب الماء في الزيت ....تود أن تخلق لدى المرأة أحاسيس الكراهية وعدم الرضى ...لا أعتبرها الطريقة المناسبة.الله سبحانه وتعاى في كتابه الشريف عزز المرأة وأعطاها من الحقوق ما لا يحصى ويعد .والرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم قام بذلك هو الآخر حين نجده يقول أمك تم أمك تم أمك فهذا في حد ذاته تكريم وحق من الحقوق .نحن لا نحتاج لمن يرد لنا حقوقنا فليس هناك والحمد لله أي حق مسلوب ولا منتهك! أنا لا أعتبر العري حق ؛التذخين حق ؛السكر حق....فإذا كانت تعني بتلك الحقوق العري......فهذه ليست حقوق ،في عصرنا الحالي أصبحنا نعتبر هذه الأشياء حقوق يجب على المرأة الحصول عليها وهذا ما جعلنا نلهت وراء الريح في حين أن الدول المتقدمة تطور مجالاتها المتعددة ...!
المهم وأنا أغوص وأتمعن صفحات هذه الرواية وجدت حقيقة ضاربة خولتني إلي أن أجزم وأقول أن نوال متطرفة .هذه شهادة إستنتجتها من طريقة سردها وتلفقيها أحداتا لا يمكن إستيعابها ،قامت وبكل جرأة وبسالة بإستخدام أيات قرأنية قامت بتحرفيها وذخلت في أمور غيبية كأوصاف الله ونعتته بأشياء لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله !!
وجدت روايتها هذه محض تخريف وهديان كما أنها مملة جدا
أدعو لها بالهداية!
October 31, 2011
In its most basic incarnation, The Innocence of the Devil is a study in repetition and the role that repetition plays, not only as a literary device but also as a way of forming -- and deconstructing -- hegemonic systems. El Saadawi is most invested in examining the constructs of gender difference from a religious standpoint, particularly in the context of madness. The tale uses repetition as a way to articulate the "madness" of the main character: a three-prong personality, like "the father, son, and holy spirit." Her name is Ganat, Nefissa, and/or Narguiss. Each personality has its own (repetitious) reflection of her life as a woman in Arabic society. Ganat, for example, was born with her eyes open. She walks with her head held high, barfoot like Jesus, and never falters physically or emotionally in the face of torment and injustice. Nefissa has red sexuality and desire; Narguiss reverts most often to a childlike state of mind: wonder, fear, or nervousness.
The Ganat/Nefissa/Narguiss trinity is a patient at The Yellow Palace -- and insane asylum -- where she receives shock treatments frequently in order to erase her memory. Her memory, it seems, is the source of her position as a public threat: "she remembers everything that has happened for five thousand years." The memory is the weapon -- she cannot forget how she has been treated by others such as her grandfather, her lover, or her mother. In each series of memories --which become confused or disjointed, or merged with beautiful dream-like imagery -- she maintains authenticiy of herself (which is a strange thing because G/N/N is already so severed and mutilated).
To complicate matters that are already murky, El Saadawi suggests that G/N/N is not only the embodiment of a female holy trinity but is also the incarnate of the devil. At first, I wondered if she were polarizing the two -- good and evil. But, she really wants to show how good and evil are one and that these are best articulated through a close examination of the position of women in Arabic society.
G/N/N is the holy trinity yet she is also Eblis, the devil, who, like her is an inmate of the The Yellow Palace. They watch each other from afar (Ganat) or make love (Nefissa) or they fear each other (Narguiss). "The devil is mad" but so is God...because there can be no other way in a world as limiting and as prejudiced and as white as hers.
One woman's body ("a body which was unreal") is the house of this power and at the same time, she is incredibly earthly. Like her mother before her, she searches -- endlessly -- for a lost son, Zakaria, whose name is consistently conflated with the name of a pagan goddess, Zahra. This one woman's body is not her own; "it belonged to her father, or to the government, or to her dead grandfather, or to another man, whose features were strange to her, and whose name she had forgotten."
The Innocence of the Devil is a labyrinth of memory, flared-through with some shots of spellbinding imagery. At its core is a political challenge, a daring re-visioning of gender roles of the past, present, and for the future generations. The devil is, as usual, a woman -- at least temporarily.
The Ganat/Nefissa/Narguiss trinity is a patient at The Yellow Palace -- and insane asylum -- where she receives shock treatments frequently in order to erase her memory. Her memory, it seems, is the source of her position as a public threat: "she remembers everything that has happened for five thousand years." The memory is the weapon -- she cannot forget how she has been treated by others such as her grandfather, her lover, or her mother. In each series of memories --which become confused or disjointed, or merged with beautiful dream-like imagery -- she maintains authenticiy of herself (which is a strange thing because G/N/N is already so severed and mutilated).
To complicate matters that are already murky, El Saadawi suggests that G/N/N is not only the embodiment of a female holy trinity but is also the incarnate of the devil. At first, I wondered if she were polarizing the two -- good and evil. But, she really wants to show how good and evil are one and that these are best articulated through a close examination of the position of women in Arabic society.
G/N/N is the holy trinity yet she is also Eblis, the devil, who, like her is an inmate of the The Yellow Palace. They watch each other from afar (Ganat) or make love (Nefissa) or they fear each other (Narguiss). "The devil is mad" but so is God...because there can be no other way in a world as limiting and as prejudiced and as white as hers.
One woman's body ("a body which was unreal") is the house of this power and at the same time, she is incredibly earthly. Like her mother before her, she searches -- endlessly -- for a lost son, Zakaria, whose name is consistently conflated with the name of a pagan goddess, Zahra. This one woman's body is not her own; "it belonged to her father, or to the government, or to her dead grandfather, or to another man, whose features were strange to her, and whose name she had forgotten."
The Innocence of the Devil is a labyrinth of memory, flared-through with some shots of spellbinding imagery. At its core is a political challenge, a daring re-visioning of gender roles of the past, present, and for the future generations. The devil is, as usual, a woman -- at least temporarily.
November 22, 2017
Nawal El-Saadawi's "Woman at Point Zero" struck me as a sustained, concise "J'Accuse", the story of a specific woman she met on Egypt's Death Row and the societal forces that took her there. "The Innocence of the Devil" is also a "J'Accuse" about what women go through in Egypt, but it is more of a sustained nightmare, hallucinatory rather than concise. I am not really sure that I can bring myself to call it a novel. For one, it takes place in a psychiatric hospital where the patients have no rights. In this section, the patient is named Ganat, which the editor explains, means the plural of "Paradise".
"Ganat pulled her arm violently away.
--I don't want injections.
--You must have an injection.
--I'm not sick.
--You are sick.
--Sick with what?
--It's not necessary for you to know."
The implication is that she is "sick" with being female. Here is her religious teacher:
"--Your eyes are full of the lust which is in Eve...
--You are a female.
His tongue hung out of his mouth after he had pronounced the word 'female' as though he were gasping, and his eyes fastened themselves on her breasts with a look that meant she was a creature without brains who belonged to the mammalian species."
But El-Saadawi takes aim at more than religion--the government/military exercises its arbitrary power, snatching brothers and sons for national service and losing them, and of course the practice of psychiatry (El-Saadawi herself was a psychiatrist) cares least of all about the patient. The courts are for declaring the guilty innocent and naming scapegoats. The evil here is heedless, selfish power in all its forms.
Midway through the narrative, Ganat finds a document written by her mother:
"--I do not fear you.
--You who forbid knowledge and snuff out the light.
--You who hide behind the face of God.
--You who sow fear and submission instead of love.
--You who kill thousands of innocent human beings.
--You who have punished me like the serpent, brought down on me an eternal curse."
Words for our times.
"Ganat pulled her arm violently away.
--I don't want injections.
--You must have an injection.
--I'm not sick.
--You are sick.
--Sick with what?
--It's not necessary for you to know."
The implication is that she is "sick" with being female. Here is her religious teacher:
"--Your eyes are full of the lust which is in Eve...
--You are a female.
His tongue hung out of his mouth after he had pronounced the word 'female' as though he were gasping, and his eyes fastened themselves on her breasts with a look that meant she was a creature without brains who belonged to the mammalian species."
But El-Saadawi takes aim at more than religion--the government/military exercises its arbitrary power, snatching brothers and sons for national service and losing them, and of course the practice of psychiatry (El-Saadawi herself was a psychiatrist) cares least of all about the patient. The courts are for declaring the guilty innocent and naming scapegoats. The evil here is heedless, selfish power in all its forms.
Midway through the narrative, Ganat finds a document written by her mother:
"--I do not fear you.
--You who forbid knowledge and snuff out the light.
--You who hide behind the face of God.
--You who sow fear and submission instead of love.
--You who kill thousands of innocent human beings.
--You who have punished me like the serpent, brought down on me an eternal curse."
Words for our times.
February 15, 2023
Intriguing title, hallucinating in style-effects, I didn’t get any grip on the story, be it that the central motives concerning the position of the woman in Islam on itself were clear, but described in such a mystifying way that I kept having trouble even finding more than loose sand in the desert of meaningfullness. JM
August 27, 2021
3 نجمات لأني لم أتمكن من فهم جل معالمها بعد! مزيج بين المحرمات الثلاث الدين و الجنس و السياسة. أعجبتني النهاية في الصفحات الأخيرة بموت جنات و الفتى إبليس و تحول الحاكم إلى نكرة ظننت أن كل شيء إنتهى لحظتها. لكن بزوال حاكم أو إله يأتي حاكم أو إله آخر فنجد أننا ندور في نفس الحلقة المفرغة مجددا.
ذكرت مسألة الذاكرة و ما يجعل الحلقة المفرغة لا متناهية هي عدم تذكر الماضي و التعلم منه للعيش في حاضر جديد و صنع مستقبل أفضل. نجد أنفسنا نغفر لكن لا يغتفر له..
هذا أحد أوجه الرواية الذي تحدثت عنه السياسي. هناك الأهم.
أعتقد أنها تستحق قراءة ثانية و ثالثة لفهمها.
نوال السعداوي هنا و كعادتها تلسع القارئ بصدمات كهربائية.
ذكرت مسألة الذاكرة و ما يجعل الحلقة المفرغة لا متناهية هي عدم تذكر الماضي و التعلم منه للعيش في حاضر جديد و صنع مستقبل أفضل. نجد أنفسنا نغفر لكن لا يغتفر له..
هذا أحد أوجه الرواية الذي تحدثت عنه السياسي. هناك الأهم.
أعتقد أنها تستحق قراءة ثانية و ثالثة لفهمها.
نوال السعداوي هنا و كعادتها تلسع القارئ بصدمات كهربائية.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2014
قرأتها لأن فيها اسمي.. استمتعت بوجوده في معظم الصفحات
" - اسمك إيه؟
- جنّات!
قالتها بملء فمها، وابتسمت. امتلأ وجهها بالضوء. بينها وبين اسمها علاقة حب قديمة. (جنّات). جمع جنّة. هكذا كان يقول أبوها."
" - أنا جنّات!
دوى صوتها في الفضاء وذاب في الهواء. وهو واقف شاخص نحوها بعينين متسعتين. اسمها جنات؟ وهو يحلم بجنّة واحدة؟ "
" - أنا جنّات وأصلها جنان جمع جنّة. "
" - اسمك إيه؟
- جنّات!
قالتها بملء فمها، وابتسمت. امتلأ وجهها بالضوء. بينها وبين اسمها علاقة حب قديمة. (جنّات). جمع جنّة. هكذا كان يقول أبوها."
" - أنا جنّات!
دوى صوتها في الفضاء وذاب في الهواء. وهو واقف شاخص نحوها بعينين متسعتين. اسمها جنات؟ وهو يحلم بجنّة واحدة؟ "
" - أنا جنّات وأصلها جنان جمع جنّة. "
September 22, 2015
Non-thorough review: this book is goddamn (ahem...) amazing, reminded me a bit of Master and Margarita and At-Swim-Two-Birds... also reminds me of a book i've never read, Satanic Verses, though I'm gonna say it's better and I definitely prefer Saadawi (as a human) to Rushdie. This book is *too* overlooked! Cop that!
March 18, 2011
مظلل و مضلل أكثر مما يجب !
فيه امور غامضة , و فيه امور جريئة , و في امور مؤلمة
و في اشياء غريبة , و في اشياء ماتنفهم ..
و حسيت بزوبعة افكار بعد ماخلصت قرايته
!
فيه امور غامضة , و فيه امور جريئة , و في امور مؤلمة
و في اشياء غريبة , و في اشياء ماتنفهم ..
و حسيت بزوبعة افكار بعد ماخلصت قرايته
!
February 26, 2016
رغم أني من محبي نوال السعداوي وكتاباتها وأفكارها إلا أن هذه الرواية لم أتمكن من فهم مغزاها أو محتواها ! ربما توقيت قراءتي لها جاء خاطئًا ..
March 31, 2023
A complex indictment of religion and patriarchy oppressing women in the context of Egypt. I’m glad I made a second attempt to read this novel - I love some of El Saadawi’s other books and, while confusing, this one was fascinating. As with Bessie Head’s ‘A Question of Power’, you just have to run with the unreality.
“The stigma of dishonour, of losing one's honour, could only be washed off by blood. And blood alone was the mark of an intact honour on the wedding night.“
“Her scream pierced through the night, shrill and prolonged. It was the scream of her mother and of her grandmother before her. The same scream. A single, long scream that went on interminably in her ears, like water dropping down a waterfall. Like the millions of voices which created the silence of the night. Everyone was dead and everyone was shouting.”
“In the mirror her body looked slim. She carried it like a gift from God, a gift He had taken away from her the minute she was born. She ate little so that her body would be like a spirit without flesh, so that it stayed small, and did not grow to the age of adolescence which made young people irresponsible, or the age of puberty which would make her womb swell with blood.”
“The stigma of dishonour, of losing one's honour, could only be washed off by blood. And blood alone was the mark of an intact honour on the wedding night.“
“Her scream pierced through the night, shrill and prolonged. It was the scream of her mother and of her grandmother before her. The same scream. A single, long scream that went on interminably in her ears, like water dropping down a waterfall. Like the millions of voices which created the silence of the night. Everyone was dead and everyone was shouting.”
“In the mirror her body looked slim. She carried it like a gift from God, a gift He had taken away from her the minute she was born. She ate little so that her body would be like a spirit without flesh, so that it stayed small, and did not grow to the age of adolescence which made young people irresponsible, or the age of puberty which would make her womb swell with blood.”
February 3, 2013
مشكلة الكتاب أنه يخلط ما بين العادات والتقاليد وما بين الدين..الدين أنصف المرأة، والعادات والتقاليد بغالبيتها تظلمها، وأحيانًا يستغل الدين لتبرير هذا الظلم رغم أنه بريء من ذلك..ففيه يتساوى الثواب والعقاب لكلا الجنسين لكن المجتمع ينسى ذلك.
التطاول على الدين مرفوض بتاتًا..ومن يدعي كونه مثقفًا عليه أن يفهم وأن يدرس الدين قبل أن يحكم عليه من مجرد مشاهدة ومعايشة معتنقيه..فقد لا توافق أفعالهم حقيقة دنيهم!!
التطاول على الدين مرفوض بتاتًا..ومن يدعي كونه مثقفًا عليه أن يفهم وأن يدرس الدين قبل أن يحكم عليه من مجرد مشاهدة ومعايشة معتنقيه..فقد لا توافق أفعالهم حقيقة دنيهم!!
September 3, 2012
توجد كتابات ينشرح لها الصدر و تدب على قراءاتها بنهم, أما هذه الرواية فتشمئز منه الأوصال لما فيها من تضليل و تطاول على كل المعتقدات و التجرؤ حتى على رب العزة.
كل الروايات التي قرأتها لهذه الكاتبة تنم على العقد العميقة التي تعاني منها الكاتبة, رغم كونها طبيبة إلا أنها كانت بحاجة ماسة إلا علاج نفسي لا إلى التنفيس بالكتابة.
كل الروايات التي قرأتها لهذه الكاتبة تنم على العقد العميقة التي تعاني منها الكاتبة, رغم كونها طبيبة إلا أنها كانت بحاجة ماسة إلا علاج نفسي لا إلى التنفيس بالكتابة.
February 12, 2014
Beyond just loving the title, this book is really interesting. It plays with time and identity and female standing under Islamic law. I liked this book more than another of hers: God Dies by the Nile. I read it for a literature about women in Islam and Christianity, and it's not a book I would pick for myself but I'm really glad I read it. It pushes your views in a really positive way.
May 1, 2019
نوال السعداوي؟ مستحيل كتاب إلها وما ينال 5/5، ببساطة لأنه فيه نوال وحدة بالعالم، كل كتاب ثورة، كل جملة ثورة، المرأة اللي ما بتخاف، المرأة اللي بتبصق بوجه التقاليد، وكل ما هو متعارف ومسلّم فيه.
أكتر مقتطف أعجبني: "كان يقول جنّات جمع جنّة. وتسأل: جنّة يعني إيه؟ ويفتح الكتاب ويقرأ: جنّة عدن تجري فيها أنهار من عسل ولبن. لم تكن تحبّ طعم العسل ولا اللبن. تفضّل عليهما الجبنة الحادقة والخيار المخلل."
أكتر مقتطف أعجبني: "كان يقول جنّات جمع جنّة. وتسأل: جنّة يعني إيه؟ ويفتح الكتاب ويقرأ: جنّة عدن تجري فيها أنهار من عسل ولبن. لم تكن تحبّ طعم العسل ولا اللبن. تفضّل عليهما الجبنة الحادقة والخيار المخلل."
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May 16, 2013It makes you feel you are living in a different world, fairly different than mine, I didn't like the repetition of her words in the book like when "Janat hear her name it's like she hear it for the first time" was repeated through out the book.
August 12, 2009
foggy memory...
October 26, 2011
I am determined not to finish reading this (read only half of it!).
October 14, 2014
قرائتي اﻻولى لنوال السعداوي..ولم تكن موفقة بالمرة.
August 31, 2016
أنهيتها ، الأحداث غير مترابطة
جاهدت نفسي حتى الصفحة الأخيرة
وللأسف لم أفهم
ثاني تجربة تخيب ظني بنوال
جاهدت نفسي حتى الصفحة الأخيرة
وللأسف لم أفهم
ثاني تجربة تخيب ظني بنوال
September 10, 2021
Written in the same surrealist style as The Fall of the Imam, The Innocence of the Devil is even more confusing. The novel is set in an insane asylum (which, as the introduction by Fedwa Malti-Douglas points out, is also identified with the Garden of Eden). It opens with Ganat, a defiant woman who apparently symbolizes rebellious women in general, being brought into the asylum by the police. She is put into solitary confinement and given electroshock therapy and injections in order to destroy her memory. The other important characters in the asylum include the Head Nurse and the Director, and three inmates, Eblis (the Egyptian spelling of Iblis, the Devil), a man who considers himself God (and may be Ganat's husband Zakaria) and a woman named Nefissa, who partially symbolizes woman as obedient victim of religious patriarchy, though she has her past memories of rebellion as well (and may be the sister of Eblis).
As in other novels by Saadawi, the plot is largely in the form of memories or visions, and we are not always sure which are real memories and which are not; for example, "God" seems to remember having been an important general or other official (in fact he resembles the Imam of the earlier book), but we don't know if he actually was or just imagines he was. We see the interactions of the inmates as children with their parents, grandparents and a male teacher -- they all seem to have been in school together, unless they are simply misidentifying each other with characters in their pasts. Many of the characters in the pasts of the inmates seem to morph into each other or into the Director. A significant theme in all the memories is the religious denigration of women and power relationships between male and female characters. At a symbolic level, Eblis and God may actually be the Devil and the Deity, although at a literal level they are just men. An interesting book, in any case.
As in other novels by Saadawi, the plot is largely in the form of memories or visions, and we are not always sure which are real memories and which are not; for example, "God" seems to remember having been an important general or other official (in fact he resembles the Imam of the earlier book), but we don't know if he actually was or just imagines he was. We see the interactions of the inmates as children with their parents, grandparents and a male teacher -- they all seem to have been in school together, unless they are simply misidentifying each other with characters in their pasts. Many of the characters in the pasts of the inmates seem to morph into each other or into the Director. A significant theme in all the memories is the religious denigration of women and power relationships between male and female characters. At a symbolic level, Eblis and God may actually be the Devil and the Deity, although at a literal level they are just men. An interesting book, in any case.
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January 22, 2024أنا اشتريت الرواية دي السنة اللي فاتت بعد ما نوال السعداوي ماتت من باب الفضول إني أعرف هي بتتكلم عن إيه الست دي
بس لسه مكنتش قريتها غير دلوقتي و قلت أقراها عشان لو عجبتني كان عندي استعداد أجيب حاجة تانية من الأعمال الروائية
بس شكلها كده مش هجيب حاجة لأنها هتكون من نفس عينة الرواية دي
أنا بجد مش فاهم الرواية دي عن إيه
لحد تلت القصة مكنتش فاهم حاجة..نقلات غريبة بين سرايا مجانين و قرية ريفية مفيش أي رابط بينهم
مش عارف مين جنات و مين نفيسة و مين نرجس و زهرة و زكريا و إبليس و العلاقة بينهم
القصة اسمها "جنات" و لحد أخرها مش عارف مين شخصية جنات دي
مش عارف إذا كانت الأسماء أو الشخصيات دي رموز لحاجات تانية و أنا مش عارف أربط الرمز ولا إيه
مش عارف نوال السعداوي عايزة تقول إيه ولا بتهاجم مين..الملكية؟ عبد الناصر؟ الدين؟ الذكر؟ مش عارف
الرواية مترجمة للإنجليزي..حتى عنوان الترجمة ملوش علاقة باللي مكتوب
اللي مكتوب فعلاً أوهام و هطل مش موجودة غير في دماغ نوال السعداوي و عبرت عنها في صورة كلام
بجد تضيع وقت قراية الرواية دي..
متستاهلش ولا نجمة
بس لسه مكنتش قريتها غير دلوقتي و قلت أقراها عشان لو عجبتني كان عندي استعداد أجيب حاجة تانية من الأعمال الروائية
بس شكلها كده مش هجيب حاجة لأنها هتكون من نفس عينة الرواية دي
أنا بجد مش فاهم الرواية دي عن إيه
لحد تلت القصة مكنتش فاهم حاجة..نقلات غريبة بين سرايا مجانين و قرية ريفية مفيش أي رابط بينهم
مش عارف مين جنات و مين نفيسة و مين نرجس و زهرة و زكريا و إبليس و العلاقة بينهم
القصة اسمها "جنات" و لحد أخرها مش عارف مين شخصية جنات دي
مش عارف إذا كانت الأسماء أو الشخصيات دي رموز لحاجات تانية و أنا مش عارف أربط الرمز ولا إيه
مش عارف نوال السعداوي عايزة تقول إيه ولا بتهاجم مين..الملكية؟ عبد الناصر؟ الدين؟ الذكر؟ مش عارف
الرواية مترجمة للإنجليزي..حتى عنوان الترجمة ملوش علاقة باللي مكتوب
اللي مكتوب فعلاً أوهام و هطل مش موجودة غير في دماغ نوال السعداوي و عبرت عنها في صورة كلام
بجد تضيع وقت قراية الرواية دي..
متستاهلش ولا نجمة
April 5, 2021
رايتها مدهشة بتفاصيلها ، وصراع البطلين "جنات المرأة وشبيهها الرجل إبليس " نزعاتهما للتمرد على الظلم ورفض السلطة الإلهية التي يتذرع بها الكبار " الآباء والمسؤولين" لممارسة قهرهم على صغارهم ومرؤوسيهم
ما أحزنني أني قرأتها في أسوأ أيام مرت علي وأعاني من تشتيت الذهن بصورة مزعجة
ما أحزنني أني قرأتها في أسوأ أيام مرت علي وأعاني من تشتيت الذهن بصورة مزعجة
June 29, 2022
السعداوي ليست اديبة، السعداوي امرأة غاضبة من الرجل، متعاطفه إلى أقصى درجة مع المرأة المصرية (العربية عموما) المطحونة أشد الطحن...
October 31, 2022
I enjoyed the images (though not their endless repetition, per se), but I found it impossible to grab hold of the storyline(s). I gave up halfway.
June 11, 2019
The masterpiece that is “The Innocence of the Devil” is an abstract literary work that oscillates between fantasy and reality. Profound imagery aides in painting the major themes of this novel; which include oppression, theology, and sexuality. Fantastic read.
August 5, 2020
This book is so addictive. I ended up staying up well into the night because I could not put it down. I can honestly say it’s my favorite by her so far. However, it may hurt sensitivities of some Muslims, Christians and Jews. If you like a good story and a feminist view into the Scriptures, this book is for you. It reminds me of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago, his most controversial book and my personal favorite.
June 23, 2019
دون المستوى فعلا
December 22, 2020
هناك بعض المغالطات التاريخية لكنه كتاب عظيم.. شكرًا نوال السعداوي والله على كتبها القيّمة
March 27, 2025
توقعت قوة ووضوح، لكن النص كان مشتّت ومليء بالرمزية الثقيلة. ما لقيت فيه العمق أو التأثير اللي كنت أبحث عنه. للأسف، ما وصلني المعنى ولا استمتعت بالتجربة.
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