The Queue

by Basma Abdel Aziz, Elisabeth Jaquette (Translator)

Set against the backdrop of a failed political uprising, The Queue is a chilling debut that evokes Orwellian dystopia, Kafkaesque surrealism, and a very real vision of life after the Arab Spring.

In a surreal, but familiar, vision of modern day Egypt, a centralized authority known as ‘the Gate’ has risen to power in the aftermath of the ‘Disgraceful Events,’ a failed popular uprising. Citizens are required to obtain permission from the Gate in order to take care of even the most basic of their daily affairs, yet the Gate never opens, and the queue in front of it grows longer.

Citizens from all walks of life mix and wait in the sun: a revolutionary journalist, a sheikh, a poor woman concerned for her daughter’s health, and even the brother of a security officer killed in clashes with protestors. Among them is Yehia, a man who was shot during the Events and is waiting for permission from the Gate to remove a bullet that remains lodged in his pelvis. Yehia’s health steadily declines, yet at every turn, officials refuse to assist him, actively denying the very existence of the bullet.

Ultimately it is Tarek, the principled doctor tending to Yehia’s case, who must decide whether to follow protocol as he has always done, or to disobey the law and risk his career to operate on Yehia and save his life.

Written with dark, subtle humor, The Queue describes the sinister nature of authoritarianism, and illuminates the way that absolute authority manipulates information, mobilizes others in service to it, and fails to uphold the rights of even those faithful to it.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia, Egypt, Science Fiction, Africa, Middle East, Speculative Fiction

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 28, 2012

About the author

Basma Abdel Aziz has a BA in medicine and surgery, an MS in neuropsychiatry, and a diploma in sociology. She works for the General Secretariat of Mental Health in Egypt's Ministry of Health and the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture.

Abdel-Aziz gained second place for her short stories in the 2008 Sawiris Cultural Award, and a 2008 award from the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces. Her sociological examination of police violence in Egypt, Temptation of Absolute Power, won the Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Award in 2009.

Her debut novel Al-Tabuur [The Queue] was published in 2013, and Melville House published an English translation by Elisabeth Jaquette in 2016.

In 2016 she was named one of Foreign Policy 's Leading Global Thinkers.[ In 2018 she was named by The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in the list of top influencers of Arabic public opinion.

Reviews

[Ioana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Umm.. so a chapter or so into the book, I began googling Basma Abdel Aziz to determine if she was still alive. Definitely, a residue of my being born and spending my childhood in a totalitarian country, for certainly a book like this would never have been published in the formerly communist Eastern block. Or, if somehow it had escaped the censors, I have no doubt its writer wouldn’t have escaped the gulag. Except perhaps, if such a book would have caught the eye of an English translator and had made its way to the West; this English publication may indeed be in some way, an insurance policy. It’s much more impractical for people surviving totalitarian dictatorships to “disappear” if someone somewhere out in the world cares or is at least aware of their existence.

So. There isn't much information about Basma Abdel Aziz, an Egyptian living in Egypt, on the English web and I don't read Arabic, but I figure there probably would have been some scandal that would have percolated through to English, had Abdel Aziz been jailed or killed. So presumably, she is alive somewhere, and if the book jacket is to be believed, this journalist and psychiatrist who treated torture victims (!!!) at Cairo’s Nadeem Center (closed in Feb. 2016) still resists and speaks out and has even “earned the nickname ‘The Rebel’ for her outspoken struggle.”

Now, you know those games, that ask you to ponder, “If you had an hour to chat on a bench/over coffee with anyone alive or dead, who would you choose?” Usually I come up with the usual, you know, Barak Obama, the grandma who passed before I was born, but now..? Now this is a woman I’d be so incredibly honored and grateful to meet. The fire that must drive her to write such critiques from within such adversity is probably the one quality I admire most in people: undeterred, passionate – exuberant even – determination to resist and battle injustice, at any cost.

Back to the book. The Queue is a brilliant allegory/surreal tableau of life in an authoritarian regime. The narrative is composed of a pastiche of impressions from individuals, named and unnamed, fully drawn out and also only brief apparitions of ‘characters’ (archetypes) that may inhabit such a landscape. There is a doctor, torn between his duty to save lives and directives from the government; there is the garrulous neighbor-informer; there is a woman who dares stand up for what she believes in until she loses everything, at which point she turns towards feverish compliance, even to the extent that she begins converting others to the governments’ cause (and many more).

The novel, as the goodreads blurb describes it, is Kafka-esque, in that it displays the absurdity of things-as-they-are through a surreal rendition of phenomena; but a more accurate description I believe would be Bulgakovian and Nabokovian, the distinction being the ethos of the work as grounded in the particular absurdity of totalitarian control over individual lives (not the more generic, “life is absurd” of Kafka, but a very specific, “life under authoritarianism is absurd”).

And, like all Bulgakovian and Nabokovian romps, Basma Abdel Aziz’s work is not only tragic, but laugh-out-loud-hilarious (though not in any “western” way that would probably resonate as humor in the US, for instance). It’s a different type of humor, a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic dead-pan that could also come off as very serious to some (I personally subscribe to this kind of humor and consider myself a person who is very much able to take a joke but 99% of my American friends don’t get this and still treat me like I’m the most serious person they know…). An example: Abdel Aziz describes a woman who is refused service by her baker, and he asks her, “Who did you pick?” at which point she tells him “I checked the box next to the candidate with the pyramid symbol….Told me I needed to apply for a certificate- I forget what it’s called- the one with a government stamp, ‘cause they’ll be sure to ask me for one when my complaint gets investigated…” On one hand, this could be read as a serious and tragic conversation but, for someone like me, used to communist Romanian humor, this read as the funniest exchange I’d encountered in a while – not to mention that the underhanded critiques implicit in every word are pure brilliance.

Conclusion: The Queue may be difficult to digest as it does not follow a traditional novelistic format or style, but if you are interested in the psychology of authoritarian regimes, if you enjoy surrealist romps, if you would like to know more about the creative minds of Egypt, I highly and with enthusiasm recommend this book.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankly, this is one hell of a good book.

[More at my reading journal if anyone's interested.

I can just picture someone somewhere reading the back-cover blurb of this book where it says "The Queue is a chilling debut that evokes Orwellian dystopia, Kafkaesque surrealism,..." and wondering why he/she should read it if it's done before. Well, it's certainly true that there are a lot of books that focus on people faced with the absurdities of a totalitarian government, but in this book, what strikes me is how optimistic some people are in believing that despite everything, if they just wait long enough, the state will take care of their problems. Never mind that the Gate, the bureaucracy which is the unseen "absolute authority" in this unnamed country, is never actually open to the citizens -- although rumors abound as to when it might open, people have been waiting long enough for help that a huge queue has formed and continues to increase in size while nobody ever seems to move. Meanwhile, the Gate continues to issue laws dictating that people will need permission from the state for an ever-growing number of activities, some as absurd as can be, but people continue to wait with some measure of hope for what they need. And it's in the queue, really, where life goes on -- there are rules to be followed, commerce taking place, religious activities and activists, protests going on, and information being disseminated -- so that at some point, the queue becomes a society in its own right.

There are a number of other stories here in this novel, and it hits on so many things thematically, but I'll leave those for others to discover. And as I said, while there are certainly any number of books out there that explore this sort of thing, this one is certainly different than most others I've read. Looking at what other people have to say, The Queue is garnering some excellent reader reviews, although one reader called it "decidedly dull," with an ending that isn't "conclusive." I will say that this book is not an easy read in the sense that answers/explanations aren't handed to you on a plate, and that it does take a fair amount of patience to read, for which in my opinion, you'll be rewarded. At the same time, as I read it, images were just exploding in my head, which is a good thing and to me the sign of a well-written novel. For me, it was a serious page turner, a book I didn't want to put down for any reason.

recommended. And it's definitely not same-old same old, which is an added bonus.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Egyptian writer Basma Abdel Aziz (b. 1976) ventures into her own Orwellian dystopia here. It is set in a city completely under the spell of The Gate, a colossal building from which the entire society is controlled. People queue for miles to get their documents in order, but the building never opens.
The central figure is the young man Yehya, who was shot during protests against the regime (“the Disgraceful Events”). But that bullet cannot be removed as long as The Gate does not grant permission. And that permission is not forthcoming; moreover, it seems that the regime is doing everything it can to conceal the existence of the bullet. We follow a group of people surrounding Yehya, as well as the doctor who was supposed to treat him. We see despair, opportunism, defiant resistance, resignation, and so on—all human reactions under a totalitarian regime.

Apparently, it is no coincidence that this book was written just after the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011 in various countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In Egypt, in particular, that popular protest ended disastrously. The author has not specifically set her story, but everything suggests that it must take place in her region.

There are constant echoes of Orwell, Kafka, and other dystopian writers. Yet, literarily, this novel remains substandard. Abdel Aziz's writing style is very dry, there is little to no psychological depth, and above all, very little humor. Of course, her story is interesting enoug, but at the same time, very depressing. Rating 2.5 stars

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basma Abdel Aziz is a force to be reckoned with, and I have to admit to being more interested in her author bio than the start of this book. But if she had not written the futility of the world she created (or reflected, really) it would not have been as effective. Everyone is in a queue, they think, to get the forms to prove they are good citizens. Only good citizens can work, rent properties, own land, and be considered for bullet removal (which is illegal.) There are tastes of 1984 and many other dystopian influences here but it's a quick read with one awful and memorable scene. And an ending that will get you thinking.

[Dagio_maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tra Kafka ed Orwell c’è...





... Basma Abdel Aziz: scrittrice egiziana, psichiatra, artista visiva e attivista per i diritti umani, soprannominata "la ribelle".
Probabilmente ne “La fila” è la donna coi capelli corti: quella che proprio non riesca stare zitta di fronte alle ingiustizie e agli atteggiamenti spavaldi di un mussulmano radicale.

Per l'ambientazione sociale e politica nella forma apocalittica e per amore di sintesi potremmo ridurre il romanzo con l'etichetta del "distopico" o - se volessimo essere più precisi- dovremmo definirlo "ucronico" per la sensazione che ci sia più distorsione di un tempo presente che l'immagine di un futuro apocalittico.
Comunque sia, in questo breve romanzo (esordio per l’autrice), non è la componente catastrofica e pessimistica la vera cifra che regge la narrazione.

Siamo in una cittadina che immaginiamo nel Nord Africa, forse l’Egitto stesso.
Vige un regime assoluto che stravolge la vita cittadina partendo dalla toponomastica (la città è divisa in aree che hanno numeri romani crescenti andando verso la periferia.) e inoltrandosi nella vita privata di tutti.
L’intransigenza della dittatura fa sollevare delle proteste che vengono violentemente sedate e denominate “Sciagurati Eventi”.
Questa è l’etichetta che segna un passaggio ulteriore nell'oppressione: da un giorno all'altro, davanti all'inaccessibile Edificio Centrale appare una Porta di fronte alla quale si forma una fila che giorno dopo giorno s’ingrossa sempre più assumendo poi dimensioni chilometriche e diventa La Fila.
La gente si accalca e aspetta pazientemente che la Porta si apra. Ognuno, infatti, vuole avere un certificato che risolva i suoi casi personali ma soprattutto è Il Certificato: quello di Buona Cittadinanza quello necessario per fare qualsiasi cosa.
Così le case si svuotano e tutto ruota attorno ad una Fila che si anima di un’umanità varia di componenti ma nel suo essere massa si rivela come materia omogenea e facilmente malleabile...


”Si chiedeva cosa spingesse le persone ad attaccarsi così tanto a quella nuova vita che orbitava intorno alla fila, incapaci di immaginare oltre. Non avevano preso con leggerezza la decisione di andare alla Porta coi documenti alla mano: tra loro c’erano professionisti e operai, vecchi e giovani, donne e uomini; non mancava nessuno, persino il più povero dei poveri era lì, e non lo dividevano dal ricco né muri né barriere: tutti si rassomigliavano, avevano lo stesso sguardo e la stessa letargia. E adesso stavano iniziando tutti a pensare nello stesso identico modo.”



Abdel Aziz rimastica Kafka rinnovando l’atmosfera di quel surreale che racconta un incredibile e tangente presente.
Ci sono forze invisibili ma al contempo presenti e pressanti che remano contro il popolo che viene aggirato/rigirato e raggirato.
Dietro tutto ciò c’è un potere cieco e sordo, che sente tutto ma non ascolta, che guarda tutto ma non vede che se stesso.
Questo ci ricorda anche Orwell che poi è soprattutto presente in quella manipolazione della storia e del concetto stesso di verità.

Veramente un libro originale che ha saputo rimaneggiare i tesori della Letteratura per raccontarci gli abissi delle dittature arabe, il pericoloso insinuarsi della testardaggine radicale e la tragedia delle torture.
Aziz lavora presso un centro di riabilitazione per vittime di tortura in Egitto.
Due elementi che dovrebbero ricordarci qualcosa per una storia che reclama giustizia così come i versi che Laura Vargiu ne “I passi spezzati” ha dedicato al triste vicenda irrisolta di Giulio Regeni:


”Ma svuotati ormai d’ogni preghiera
andiamo in cerca del tuo nome
e di quei giovani tuoi passi spezzati
in quest’abietta landa di disumanità
su cui invochiamo cieli tersi di giustizia
mentre le loro più torbide menzogne
impietosa han già raccontato la verità”

(da “I passi spezzati” di Laura Vargiu, Terza Classificata al concorso “Poesia e Solidarietà” in Trieste, 2019)

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a non-specific Middle Eastern setting, life in a city is governed by 'the Gate', both an actual structure and a symbol of authoritarian rule. Citizens are instructed to queue outside it for permits and certificates for everything from job applications to medical treatment. The Gate, however, never opens – it's often rumoured that it's about to, but all that happens is that more new laws are imposed; the queue grows longer and starts to turn into a permanent fixture. All this takes place in the aftermath of a failed uprising, always referred to as 'the Disgraceful Events'. As with many things in this story, the absurd moniker is amusing but also grating, and these effects are only amplified as it echoes through the text.

There's an almost bewilderingly large cast of characters, some of whom are given names, while others are simply defined by a single feature throughout the narrative ('the man in the galabeya', 'the woman with short hair'). The dominant thread is about a man named Yehya who needs a special permit for an operation to remove the bullet lodged in his pelvis; while his health declines, the Gate issues an edict effectively declaring bullets nonexistent. Over and over, Yehya and the others return to the queue. Frustrating repetitiveness is a deliberate feature of the way the story is told, underscoring the bureaucratic hell the characters have to put themselves through day after day.

In The Queue, we see the many different ways in which authoritarianism might undermine and, ultimately, destroy an individual. Rebels and conformists alike are subsumed by the regime. One particularly disturbing example is Yehya's friend Amani, whose efforts to track down a missing X-ray result in a punishment so nightmarish it rubs out her identity, leaving a blank slate who parrots Gate slogans. Amani's ordeal is the most powerful sequence in the book; the aftermath is a devastating portrait of the effects of trauma. The Queue ends not with a bang but with a downbeat sigh. It's a simultaneously farcical and believable portrait of life under autocratic rule, with tiny glimmers of hope as a community forms within the queue.

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[Viv JM · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Queue is an interesting new take on the dystopian genre, which manages to balance hyper-reality with a sense of surreal absurdity. It is set in an unnamed authoritarian state, where citizens are at the mercy of a central authority figure called The Gate. Bureaucracy is extreme – citizens need authorization for the slightest need (eye test, anyone?)– and in order to gain this, they must join the queue at The Gate. More and more people join the queue, but The Gate never seems to open, despite the rumours.

The book contains a variety of different characters who have joined the queue for different reasons. The main character, Yehya, must obtain permission to have a bullet removed from his abdomen – an injury we are told he received during the Disgraceful Events. Unfortunately, the government denies that any bullets were fired, and issues more and more preposterous propaganda to convince citizens that the events did not occur!

Although in many respects, The Queue is quite a grim and depressing read, I did not find it to be without hope. Within the story, friends help each other out, compromises are made and entrepreneurship thrives for some. My interpretation of the ending was a positive one (though yours may differ – it is certainly open for interpretation!)

This is a thought-provoking book that may well leave you with more questions than answers. A recommended read!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just an okay read for me. I don’t think it was the book- I think it was the mood I was in while reading it.

This is a dystopia about a world ruled by a mysterious gate that popped up out of nowhere one day and began issuing laws and decrees. At first people expected the Gate to be a good thing, but then the horror slowly dawns on them as the laws get stricter and stricter, forcing people to jump through numerous hoops to get anything done.

Mostly it follows a character named Yehya and his friends. Yehya has a bullet stuck in him because the Gate has decreed that no bullets shall be removed without authorization from the Gate. So he waits in the Queue to get permission.

Unfortunately the Queue isn’t moving. The Gate still issues laws and amendments. But no one who needs anything from the Gate ever seems to get what they need.

I have to say, being stuck in a line that never moves is pretty much my worst nightmare. We’re introduced to a few other citizens in the Queue but a lot of them are very forgettable. One of them is literally: “the woman with the short hair.”

The ending is extremely ambiguous and I feel pretty cheated. Like I waited in the Queue for warm croissants but by the time I reached the front all they had was day old bread.

I do think the author did a lot of interesting things with the concept of the Queue. It seemed to take on a life and economy of its own. I feel as though it was all part of the Gate’s grand design but I couldn’t tell you to what end.

I think ultimately, this book felt unfinished to me. There were a lot of really neat concepts that were never fully explained or carried through.

[Jonfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

But Yehya was not convinced, and he did not stop bleeding.

So many have placed this book on Speculative Fiction lists. I find that curious. Maybe, hopeful?

The themes are unrelentingly bleak. After the teargas, brace for Kafka's Law. Not Murphy's -- rather have the stout than Beckett's blues. I mean Kafka's LAW, you know the edifice of authority, rife with a voiceover from Orson Welles?

The novel concerns a thinly disguised Egypt which after the Arab spring, uhh I mean the Disgraceful Events, when an architectural menace (The Gate) is established to address the citizens need for permits, and oh they need a permit for essentially everything. Much like the doors of K's Law--these never appear to open, nothing is processed and in despair people queue, hence the title. I won't spoil the specific situation which links most of the characters. It would be a farce if it wasn't so true. I finished this novel last night hearing tear gas cannons from Louisville. That was a first. I am not suggesting matters are heading that way. Well, not yet anyway.
4.5 stars

[LindaJ^ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of how an authoritarian government works. History and reality are rewritten to tell fit the truth the government decides will work best to keep its citizens in line. Fear is used to control the masses. Surveillance in many forms is everywhere and is constant.

Tarek is a surgeon. As the book begins, he is reviewing the file of a patient he treated in the emergency room the night the "Disgraceful Events" began. The patient had been shot. After getting the x-rays and observing a bullet lodged near the patient's kidneys, Tarek had determined it needed to be removed, but before he began the surgery, two things happened. First, a colleague reminded him that he could not remove a bullet without obtaining special permission, and second, his patient and all the others being treated after being injured in the Disgraceful Events were removed to the military hospital. Tarek is unable to keep this patient from haunting him.

The book is divided into six parts. Each part begins with a part of the patient's file -- Document #1 is titled "patient information"; Document #2 is titled "time, location, circumstances of the injury; Document #3 is titled "Examinations Conducted, Visible Symptoms, and Preliminary Diagnosis;" Document #4 is titled "patient's history;" Document #5 is titled "the Gate's response;" and Document #6 includes a "Follow-up" and "Notes." Tarek keeps the file in his office at the hospital and broods over it. It seems that almost every time he looks at it, something has been changed or added. Tarek becomes increasingly distraught over this patient.

The patient, with his best friend, joins the "Queue" that is lined up before the Gate because he has to get a document from the Gate before he can get the surgery he needs. The Gate, however, was closed after the Disgraceful Events and has yet to reopen. As the laws and regulations keep changing, more and more people find themselves needed to obtain something from the Queue and the line grows until it stretches for miles. Groups form within the Queue, a coffee shop opens within the Queue, boycott's arise and countered within the Queue. For weeks and months, the Queue grows but the Gate has yet to reopen. The patient's girlfriend tries to help him get the x-ray he needs as part of his application for a permit to get the ever-moving bullet removed.

This book starts slow. It is unclear at first what is going on - why are people in this line and why does it keep growing? But as the book moves forward, the stories of some of those in the Queue are told, as well as what their day-to-day life is like now that they are in the Queue.

A couple of the thoughts that kept running through my head as I read this book were (1) the high profile stories about President Obama not being an American citizen and being Muslim (both attempts to rewrite the truth) and (2) how average German citizens were kept in line during Hitler's rule. This is a frightening book. The story it tells has great relevance in today's world.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is set in an unnamed Middle Eastern Country, although the author lives in Cairo and has written several works of non-fiction speaking out against oppression and torture in Egypt.

In this book, there is a totalitarian regime, symbolized by the mysterious Gate, to which all citizens must apply for permits for almost everything. The main story line features Yehya, a man who was shot during the so called Disgraceful Events, and has a bullet in his stomach. The book follows him and his friends as they try and arrange surgery to have the bullet removed, but they are stymied at every turn by the necessity of having permission from the Gate to have it removed, if you can believe that. And the Gate is never open so people wait for weeks and months in the queue, hence the book's title.

The book is well written and well translated from the Arabic and is recommended to people who like translated fiction or like this kind of story. On the cover, there is a big eye, reminiscent of Big Brother is Watching You....

[Abdullah · Rating 3 out of 5]

جرعة مكثفة من البؤس.. منعتني النوم، وضاعفت اكتئابي..
يا رب هوّن!

[شريف ثابت · Rating 3 out of 5]

مثقف محبط، صحفى ثائر، متطرف دينى، إمرأة مكافحة تنبش فى التراب بحثا عن الرزق، شخص مصاب برصاصة فى صدامات ثورية ويرفض النظام علاجه أو حتى الاعتراف بإصابته، شعب بالكامل اختزلت حياته وأحلامه فى طابور طويل طويل بلا نهاية، وسلطة غاشمة جاثمة تستبد بالجميع..

العمل الثانى الذى أقرأه لبسمة عبد العزيز بعد دراستها المهمة "إغواء السلطة المطلقة" إلى جانب مقالها الدورى فى الشروق، والرواية هنا تنتمى لنفس العالم الذى جاءت منه أعمال أدبية ك "1984" أورويل و"451 فهرنهايت" برادبورى وفى أدبنا العربى "أسفار الفراعين" لفشير و"يوتوبيا" لأحمد خالد توفيق، حيث المستقبل كابوس أسود وحكم سلطوى لا حد لاستبداده وتفننه فى قمع مواطنيه..

الكاتبة أجادت صنع الجو العام للرواية وقدمت رؤى سياسية وفلسفية جيدة، وإن جاء هذا -كما هى العادة فى هذه النوعية من الأدب حيث الفكرة هى الأساس- على حساب الشخصيات التى احتاجت لمزيد من التركيز فى بناء تاريخها.. لماذا يحيى وأمانى وناجى بالذات تمتعوا بهذا القدر من الثورية والتمرد مثلا؟ الإجابة لا تشفع لها السطور التى جاءت عنهم قرب نهاية الرواية.. وبأى حال العمل مميز بفكرته وأجواءه ورؤاه وباتساقه مع شخصية كاتبته كما يعرفها قارئها المخضرم ومن يعلم بموقفها فى قضية مايكل عادل..

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating dystopian novel. It takes place in an unnamed city in the middle east where there is a centralized authoritarian control known only as "The Gate" Citizens are required to obtain permission for just about anything from the gate. The problem is the gate never seems to open so people have to wait in the most ridiculous queue ever and they never really get anywhere. Our main character, Yehya, has an even bigger problem. He needs permission from the gate to have a bullet removed. Only the events that led to him getting shot never happened, according to the gate.

If you like books that have a neat and tidy ending with all questions answered this is NOT the book for you. Otherwise I definitely recommend this one.

[Sookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Queue is built on historical precedence set by Arab Springs. The foundation of the story lies in the changing climate in the middle east with its revolt against authorities, outing fundamentalism and greater exposure to social media. The globe watched more closely than ever when an entire nation protested against their government and changed history forever. This book is set during one such moment in history where the revolt against government fails, and fails for the worse. The building that houses government is barricaded and the gate to enter this complex is closed. People form queue in front of this gate since getting permission to access anything - X-Ray, food, access, is fully controlled by the government.

The Queue follows a group of citizens who find themselves in a position to ask permission from government for their continued survival. When religious fundamentalism is added to the mix, few of the characters have direct consequences on their everyday life. Aziz takes her readers on a slow journey into lives of people who are everyday people like you and me. There aren't grand gestures, grandiosity or overt use of political turmoil. The protests against the government is an occurrence that exists in edges of the pages - unforgotten but never unwritten. The complexities of life under an absolute authoritarian rule isn't blatantly obvious to those who go about their day without questioning, protesting or be in need of an outside help. But a simple question to a baker can get citizen the boot and deny them food in future. That, is the true problem of regimes like these. The middle men, the ones who are on the ground and provide everyday service, with little to less power grow corrupt faster and make the life of people more difficult than it already is.
Aziz touches many aspects of this kind of government - a government that rules with utmost authority but essentially doesn't care much about well being of its citizens.

The book setting isn't really Kafkaesque or Orwellian. Its far worse. The nature of dystopia as Kafka and Orwell imagined was rooted in history. What Aziz portrays isn't very far from reality and probably some of it is already in place in different parts of geographies. People, in general are distracted and don't realize the little installments of freedom we have started signing off to our governments.

Voices like Aziz come from the part of the world to which we are exposed to via news reels and documentaries. It is time we hear their personal stories as well.

[Allison Hurd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad, contemplative, pain-ridden story of living under a totalitarian regime in the early days of that regime.

This is only scifi because it is a dystopia that hasn't happened in this exact way, and there's a torture scene that I don't know how that happened. Otherwise, this will feel very contemporary.

body horror (gun wound), torture, sexism, religion, war, governmental oppression, loss of a loved one

I listened to this at a time when my comprehension skills were not at their highest, so I will only give impressions, which is that it was...sad and raw, but I don't know it moved the dial for me in any direction. But that could also be the circumstances under which I read.

[Booker · Rating 1 out of 5]

A mostly spoiler-free one this time, since my major problems with this are due to structure.

I went into this book with no expectations either way. While I saw the blurb about Kafka, I ignored it, because such blurbs are marketing, not anything else. If I were to describe this book in one word, it would be "unfocused."

First, I am well-aware that this is a translation. And there are a few things that crop up due to the translation issue, such as untranslated words (like the clothing called galabaya) and the issue of event/events. There are two "Disgraceful Events," yet each are referred to in the plural, even with the use of ordinal numbers. "Second Disgraceful Events" is not grammatically correct. It's also frustrating, since the events in-setting are singular incidents. Even if that's a direct translation, there should have been some changes, since such usage is incorrect in English.

All my other problems with this book have to do specifically with how this reads as an unedited first draft, not a book published in multiple countries and having received official translation.

The characters all have some very major problems as characters. Most dystopias tend to follow one character around. This offers some kind of stable perspective for the reader and and such a character undergoes a full character arc about the circumstances they find themselves in. In this, we have at least six characters who are going through character arcs on the page but, because of the format and lack of depth for any characters, none of these stories are particularly compelling. This is a serious problem for a dystopia, because of the nature of the subgenre requires you to care about the characters and the circumstances.

This becomes even more of a problem when someone ends up in a watered-down version of Room 101 but only isolation and darkness, but we're supposed to assume she was tortured so badly that she pulls a full Winston and loves Big Brother, essentially. It doesn't work because of how short that part of the story is and because we're not given a timeline.

Characters also sound notably similar. This is a problem, since we have a doctor, someone with a sociology background, a schoolteacher, a working woman who cannot read, and so on, with some differing views on religion and so on, yet their internal dialogue all sound the same. The characters also lack depth, being only a few surface traits.

The lack of focus also turns up with the political issues dealt with. Dystopias by their nature are a political genre, a warning the author gives about a specific extreme or insane ideology they fear will come to pass. The problem with this one is twofold. First, the author is dealing with all sorts of different topics, but doesn't properly logically connect them in the story, thus it comes across another problem with her focus.

Second, the logic is the insane troll logic of conspiracy theories. 1984 and The Trial and other good dystopias make a point that it's only a minority of the population that's incredibly heavily observed and trapped in the hellish system, because otherwise it encounters the major problem of any dragnet. In this case, they surveil everyone, despite how inefficient that would be for them. I also had a moment where I went, "You know, this is exactly like conspiritards." Most conspiracy nuts tend to go on about how the conspiracy is so vast and powerful, yet fail to kill the nut in question, despite the nut supposedly exposing them for all to see and having the power to fake all sorts of crap.

The religious and ideological issue is an issue where it's not pinned down. What I mean is that, in dystopias and similar stories, the religious or ideological reasoning needs to be explained to some extent. Otherwise, it comes across as too vague. Who is fighting whom for what? What are their arguments? It causes problems because, while I absolutely loathe the idea of theocracy on principle, the point of a dystopia is to warn. It's very hard to warn if you do not explain anything and leave it too vague, to the point of being as insubstantial as vapor.

Why didn't they just kill the man who was shot? They had no problems murdering/unpersoning anyone else. Why not just give him the surgery and tell him never to talk of it again? They had no problem doing that with others.

The timeline is incredibly hard to pin down and that is more from poor writing. It reminds me too much of the Handmaid's Tale's bad timeline, since it's like both want to have their cake and eat it, too. That is to say, having this system that few question and the few who do get unpersoned, which would require decades of a cultural shift and conditioning, but also having this be the start of the dystopia, within a few years of its inception.

Another major problem is the issue of showing versus telling. There is almost no dialogue in the novel, almost all conversations instead being summaries. The same goes with much of the character arcs and perspectives, where we're told a good many things, but we rarely see the things as they actually happen, instead just getting a summary of actions. There are also scenes with characters remembering things that we could have been shown in the story, since the events in question take place during the story. It comes across as sloppy. This makes The Queue come across more like a summary for a much larger novel than a novel in its own right.

Edit: Before I forget, my final problem with it as an unfocused story is the jump of perspectives. There are often jumps between paragraphs in each chapter to different characters. However, it's so constant that it makes the text even more jumbled. Due to all the different factors, it's like the writer could not focus on anything in particular and chased after whatever struck her fancy at a given moment.

[Aleshanee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mich hat das Konzept der Autorin, einen totalitären Staat in einer Dystopie zu kreieren, mit der Idee des Tores total neugierig gemacht. Leider muss ich sagen, dass die Umsetzung mich nicht begeistern und auch nicht fesseln konnte.
Der nüchterne Stil und die teilweise umständliche Erzählweise empfand ich total anstrengend - während dem Lesen sind meine Gedanken abgeschweift, was mir wirklich selten passiert und ich musste dann auch Passagen überfliegen, weil ich ansonsten nicht bis zum Ende des Buches gekommen wäre.

Das Tor symbolisiert eine Art Allmacht, die höchste Instanz in einem System, das über alles entscheidet, was die Bürger betrifft. Wegen allen möglichen Entscheidungen müssen die Menschen Anträge genehmigen lassen oder sich einen Stempel / eine Bescheinigung holen, was den Irrwitz einer überzogenen Bürokratie aufzeigt, von der wir gar nicht so weit entfernt zu sein scheinen. Zumindest hat es für mich schon gewisse Bezüge zur unserer Gesellschaft.

Aber grade auch die Willkür dieser Allmacht steht hier im Vordergrund und die die Menschen aushöhlende Angst und ja, Demut, sich dem Willen der Oberen zu unterwerfen. Die Frage nach der Moral und der Ethik steht dem Gehorsam gegenüber, der blind sein muss, damit man (über)leben kann.
Auch das ist in unserer Gesellschaft immer wieder eine Entscheidung, die kein gutes Gefühl in mir weckt, denn man spürt grade sehr deutlich, wie sehr viele Menschen sich von wenigen abhängig machen, die mit ihrer Macht alles durchsetzen, ohne eine Demokratie zuzulassen.
In der Geschichte spürt man ebenso, wie die Menschen alles zulassen, weil sie müde geworden sind und sich lieber in das System einfügen, als die Kraft aufzubringen, ihre Ketten zu sprengen.

Hauptsächlich geht es bei "Das Tor" um den verletzten Yahya, der sich während einem Aufstand eine Kugel eingefangen hat - und um den Arzt Tarik, der diese Kugel wegen einem gesetzlichen Erlaß nicht entfernen darf.
Yahya versucht mit allen Mitteln, eine Erlaubnis zu bekommen, während Tarik immer mehr das Gewissen quält, den Mann nicht behandelt zu haben.
Aber es tauchen auch Freunde von Yahya auf, genauso wie andere Menschen in der Warteschlange vor dem Tor, die jeder mit den unterschiedlichsten Schicksalsschlägen zu kämpfen haben.

Das ging mir leider öfter alles viel zu durcheinander, denn die vielen Namen und wechselnden Perspektiven haben es mir schwer gemacht, mir ein prägnantes Bild der Charaktere zu machen.

Die Autorin stammt ja aus Kairo und das Buch erschien im Jahr 2013 und somit kann man die Zusammenhänge und Hintergründe erahnen, auf welchen Basma Abdel Aziz ihre Geschichte aufgebaut hat.
Leider konnte sie mich damit nicht wirklich erreichen, auch wenn die Botschaft dahinter elementar ist.

"Nagi hatte erwartet, dass wenigstens einer die Regeln brechen würde, dass wenigstens einer der Wartenden die Halbstarken unterstützen oder zumindest mit ihrem Aufruf zur Revolte gegen diese kuriose Situation sympathisieren würde, aber nichts geschah." Zitat Seite 122

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a challenging but in the end quite affecting novel. The author, an Egyptian journalist, is also a psychiatrist who treats victims of torture. Excellent credentials for writing a novel about the impact of government oppression.

The story opens in an unnamed Middle Eastern city with Dr Tarek Fahmy reviewing the file of his patient Yehya Gad el-Rab Saeed. Said patient had come to him for the removal of a bullet in his groin, received during an uprising that has come to be known as the Disgraceful Events.

Though the uprising failed it had an unlooked for upshot: The Gate, where citizens must go for even the most basic permissions but which never opens. A queue of petitioners grows and grows so long that one cannot see from one end to the other. In order to conceal all evidence that any civilians were shot during the uprising, Yehya must receive permission for the operation to remove the bullet, a permission that will never be granted because that would be an admission that a civilian was shot.

The queue becomes a community in itself attracting people from all walks of life. Many of them camp out there for weeks and weeks so as not to lose their place in line. I pictured something like the lines that form in America for concert tickets and such, except that in this queue the gate will never open.

I grew to admire many of the characters. Yehya, always in pain and slowly dying, is the Stoic. Amani, his girlfriend, in her attempts to help Yehya, pays a terrible price including mental torture. Um Mabrouk needs medicine for her son; her "camping spot" becomes a gathering place where she serves snacks, always has the latest news, and makes a living there instead of going to her job. Ehab is the journalist who keeps writing for the dissenting newspaper that employs him but will not always publish his articles.

When I finished the book, I had to lay on my reading futon with eyes closed and mind wandering for a good 30 minutes until the devastation wreaked on me began to fade. I felt a bit of what Amani must have felt when she was kept captive in a place of darkness, where she could not see, smell, hear, taste or feel anything.

I can't say that I found much hope in the story except from the characters who did their best to stand up to the oppression and not give in. Human beings are equally strong in cruelty and dissent. What impressed me most was the realistic portrayal of the effects of totalitarianism on the human psyche. Basma Abdel Aziz is an incredible writer.

[أحمد السكري · Rating 2 out of 5]

روايه معقولة و جيده تقع في عالم موازي لفانتازيا چورچ أورويل و أجواء يوسا المليئون بالاسقاطات علي الواقع ، يمكن سقف التوقعاتي هو اللي كان عالي اوي ، عشان كده شفتها مملة في بعض اجزائها و كان ممكن تكون مشوقه اكتر من كده ، عموما افضل جزء بها هو ربعها الأخير بغض النظر عن النهاية .


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[ تحديث [ تم توقيع عقد تحويل الرواية لفيلم امريكي الإنتاج لو وقع تحت ايدي تفاصيل اكتر بكتبها عنا

[Raad Saqer · Rating 3 out of 5]

رواية دستوبية عن القمع و الانتظار العبثي و النظام الشمولي بطابع رمزي .

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a dystopian novel by an Egyptian author, which is a reinterpretation of state’s actions after clamping down a protest, most likely under influence of Arab Spring movements. I read it as a part of monthly reading for October-November 2021 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group.

The story starts with a doctor on duty at the hospital, perusing a patient’s case. One of the unusual notes is a writing: Suspended Pending Approval by the Gate. As readers soon find out, there is the Gate, to which people come to solve their problems and which issues decrees and announcements. However, the process is quite slow, thus there is a long Queue to the Gate, and people stay there day after day, hoping to get a Gate’s decision in their case. The rest of the story shows to readers different people around the Queue – not only ones with grievances but also proselytizers, journalists, peddlers and so on.

The major characters are Yehya Gad el-Rab Saeed, the patient from the case mentioned above, and several his friends. Before the story started there were the Disgraceful Events, the name Gate’s propaganda uses to denote protests against the authorities. They ended bloody and Yehaya’s body keeps one of the bullets shot by the police, but the Gate denies that any shots were fired, making more and more bizarre stories, from mass hysteria to filming an Action movie. As time goes on, Yehaya’s health deteriorates, but he cannot get an operation to remove the bullet before the Gate allows it and the Queue doesn’t move much.

The story borrows heavily from Franz Kafka’s The Trial and Vladimir Sorokin’s Очередь (also Queue!), with a rigid bureaucratic society, closer to the USSR that to even highly bureaucratized West. Living thru two revolutions here in Ukraine, following news from Egypt and Turkey I ought to like the story as a similar experience. However, for me a lot of characters are flat and the unbreakable and unhearing wall of the authority isn’t that new.

[Özgür · Rating 1 out of 5]

Farklı bir coğrafyadan bir distopya okuma fikri çekici gelmişti. Ama ilgi çekici bir hikaye olduğunu söyleyemeyeceğim. Kapı, kuyruk gibi çok özgün olmasa da iyi fikirler var ama hikaye iyi inşa edilmemiş.

Çeviri de kitabın okunmasını zorlaştırıyor. Arapça orijinalden değil de İngilizce tercümesinden Türkçe'ye çevrilmiş. Dolayısıyla karakterlerin isimleri İngilizce kalmış. Yehya, Nagy, Tarek yerine Yahya, Naci ve Tarık (veya Tarik) demek daha doğru olurdu sanki. Aynı şekilde hacı gibi aşina olduğumuz bazı kelimeler de Arapça'nın İngilizce yazımı şeklinde kalmış. Bildiğim kadarıyla Mısır Arapçasında C (İngilizce yazıyorsanız J :) harfi yerine G kullanılıyor. Çevirmen ve editör bunu dikkate almamış sanırım. Daha iyi bir çeviri ve editörlükle daha akıcı bir metin elde edilebilirdi.

[Ceyrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting take on the dystopian genre. Takes place in an unnamed city in the Middle East, and a centralised authoritarian control known has “The Gate” forces citizens to obtain permission for just about anything. The problem is the gate never opens. The Queue is a brilliant allegory/surreal tableau of life in an authoritarian regime. Highly recommend this book, told in six parts, each beginning with a patients record.

[Matteo Fumagalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Videorecensione: https://youtu.be/F4emODLKclU

[Laura V. لاورا · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'Egitto (?) delle rivoluzioni incompiute

Una bella e inattesa scoperta, questo romanzo e questa autrice egiziana in cui mi sono imbattuta grazie a un'amica che ringrazio ancora una volta. “La Fila” racconta una storia quasi surreale, ambientata in un Paese che non si tarda a individuare, non a caso, nell'Egitto di quest'ultimo decennio, sullo sfondo di rivoluzioni e manifestazioni di piazza.
La trama, infatti, ruota intorno alla vicenda di Yahya, un trentotenne rimasto ferito durante quelli che vengono chiamati “gli Sciagurati Eventi”, il quale ha assoluta necessità che gli venga rimosso un proiettile conficcatoglisi nel bacino. Tuttavia, essere sottoposti a un intervento chirurgico è tutt'altro che semplice, occorre un'autorizzazione che soltanto la Porta può rilasciare. Ma quest'ultima, chiusa nel suo silenzio assordante ed emblema di un potere dittatoriale (dietro cui può celarsi quello del deposto Mubarak o quello attuale di al-Sisi, poco importa), sembra avere interesse a insabbiare la scomoda faccenda, mentre una fila di persone, ognuna con la propria personale richiesta da presentare, si allunga a dismisura davanti a essa con il passare delle settimane. Oltre a quello di Yahya, compaiono altri personaggi che, a seconda dei casi, si ritrovano nel mezzo della coda, compreso il dottor Tareq che s'interrogherà a lungo su come comportarsi in merito all'intervento di rimozione del proiettile.
Pubblicato in Italia nel 2018 e due anni prima negli Stati Uniti, il romanzo offre una lettura sotto molti aspetti originale; di certo, è una denuncia lucida e impietosa della realtà che attanaglia purtroppo diversi Stati al mondo. Basma Abdel Aziz, l'autrice, classe 1976, è un'attivista per i diritti umani che, come si legge nella sua nota biografica, ha conosciuto in prima persona le carceri del suo Paese; in ciò che lei racconta non si fa fatica a riconoscere quanto accade nell'Egitto contemporaneo, quello delle rivoluzioni incompiute e delle feroci repressioni di cui è rimasto vittima – lo sappiamo bene – anche il nostro Giulio Regeni, così come migliaia di altri giovani che chiedono soltanto di poter avere un futuro. La tensione, in queste pagine, è palpabile e ci si sente inermi di fronte a un regime astuto, subdolo, mistificatore che tiene sotto scacco i cittadini.
Pur avendo apprezzato il libro ed essendo contenta in generale di questa lettura, non riesco ad andare oltre le tre stelle e ½: non si è creata empatia sufficiente tra me e i personaggi che animano la storia e, come lettrice, faccio evidentemente fatica a ritrovarmi in narrazioni dove i tempi risultano sfumati e i luoghi anonimi e privi d'anima; la città in cui si svolge la vicenda potrebbe essere Il Cairo, ma essa si riduce a un non-luogo freddo e burocratizzato, senza tratti distintivi che possano persino affascinare. Forse, giusto per restare in ambito egiziano, sono più per le prose franche e “sfacciate” di 'Ala al-Aswani che chiama ogni cosa col suo nome. In ogni caso, un'autrice certamente da tenere presente e della quale approfondire la conoscenza.

[Leti lo yeti · Rating 3 out of 5]

La fila è un'interessante aggiunta al genere distopico: l'ambientazione in un Paese arabo non meglio specificato; gli "Sciagurati Eventi" a seguito dei quali viene istituita la Porta, al contempo luogo fisico e metafora del regime autoritario sotto il quale vivono i tanti personaggi che popolano la narrazione; e i tanti decreti confusi e contraddittori che vengono emanati e rettificati dalla stessa, e che danno all'opera un carattere a volta kafkiano, a volte orwelliano; insomma, ero sicura che tutto questo avrebbe resto l'opera incredibilmente interessante, e che l'avrei molto apprezzata. Invece, purtroppo, qualcosa non ha funzionato: forse è stato a causa del mio stato d'animo mentre leggevo, ma è come se avessi fatto fatica a entrare nello spirito del romanzo sin dalle prime pagine, e mi fossi quindi tirata dietro questa mancanza per tutta la lettura.

Sicuramente è un peccato, anche perché la figura dell'autrice (scrittrice, psichiatra, attivista per i diritti umani e artista, soprannominata "la ribelle") è estremamente interessante. In ogni caso, lo consiglio e mi dispiace che io stessa non lo abbia apprezzato quanto avrei voluto.

[Saturn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando i manifestanti, terrorizzati da tanta ferocia, batterono ritirata, furono accusati di diffondere il caos

La distopia di Basma Abdel Aziz è ambientata in un non meglio precisato stato arabo nordafricano, che potrebbe essere l'Egitto oppure no. Lo si deduce più dalle atmosfere e da alcuni richiami culturali che da indicazioni dell'autrice. In effetti questa storia potrebbe essere ambientata ovunque, basterebbe cambiare qualche dettaglio. Il focus principale della narrazione, secondo me, sta nella degradazione della società che vede il regime in carica farsi sempre più opprimente, imbrigliando la vita dei cittadini in una quantità di regole e permessi senza i quali non potrebbe essere svolta praticamente nessuna attività. Uno degli aspetti che mi ha colpito maggiormente è l'arte di manipolare la verità, che messa in pratica dalle autorità porta la società civile a scivolare sempre di più verso un assoggettamento crescente al regime. Controllare la narrazione è dunque fondamentale per mantenere il potere e lo si fa controllando l'informazione e screditando le voci dissidenti.
Dove questo non basta si interviene con metodi più brutali, ma sempre silenziosi, come le improvvise sparizioni o la tortura che porta ferite talmente profonde che non possono essere narrate.
Molte delle atmosfere de La fila richiamano quelle delle storie di Kafka, in quanto vediamo i personaggi girare in tondo alla ricerca di una via per infilarsi nelle maglie del sistema. Un sistema che trova sempre il modo di rimbalzarti via, fino al possibile scoramento. Questo è anche un romanzo sulla perseveranza che i suoi personaggi esprimono nel ricercare giustizia e sul conflitto che si può sperimentare fra l'obbedienza alla legge e il dovere morale di fare ciò che è giusto.
Osservando la fila che si forma a ridosso della Porta, che dovrebbe dare risposte e soluzioni ma finisce per rappresentare solo l'illusione concessa dal regime di ottenere qualcosa per risolvere i propri piccoli-grandi problemi, si assiste a una serie di drammi quotidiani che hanno uno stile tragicomico per la contrapposizione di personaggi molto diversi che inscenano le loro diatribe personali. Per molta parte del testo sembra di assistere a una pièce teatrale perché la fila è un luogo essenzialmente statico dove si aprono e si chiudono tante piccole storie, in un'insieme complesso e variegato che restituisce un quadro ampio che va molto al di là del racconto principale che fa da collante a tutto il resto.

La fila era una calamita: attirava la gente e la imprigionava in circoli chiusi, spogliandola di ogni specificità

[Rouchswalwe · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a pivotal scene in which one of the characters describes the nothingness in which she finds herself. In a few pages, we are led into a directionless void, no scent, no texture, no communication. I found it terrifying. Together with the 6 documents we are presented with throughout the book, I was made to feel the horror and the tension these characters faced in this world. And I had to ask the question of how people are able to communicate with one another under such a faceless, burdensome power. The author writes of a mysterious government that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "keeping people in line" through the eyes of several fascinating characters. The queue is long, but not orderly. No, the men and women jump forward if they can, leave, come back, live a sort of hazy life. Here in the queue, a kind of communication does takes place, in contrast to the silence of the Gate. Until the Violet Telecom becomes a player in the game.

If you expect answers reading this superb book, you won't find them. Questions. There are questions here, questions I found to be stimulating and very satisfying.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 Sterne (= gut, empfehlenswert, aber speziell), Rezensionsexemplar.

Ausführliche Rezension in meinem Lesemonat September 2020 auf Youtube: