ساعات الكبرياء

by Edwar al-Kharrat, إدوار الخراط

151 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Edwar al-Kharrat (or Edward al-Kharrat; Arabic: إدوار الخراط) was an Egyptian translator, writer, and editor of several literary magazines.

Reviews

[عمرو الجيزاوي · Rating 2 out of 5]

مجموعة قصص تتفاوت بين المتوسطة والضعيفة، لم يعجبني الجو العام الكئيب للقصص

[Sawsan · Rating 3 out of 5]

أسلوب إدوار الخراط يجمع بين شاعرية اللغة وكثافة الوصف
قصص قصيرة متنوعة أحداثها قليلة ومكتوبة بتفاصيل دقيقة
حكايات ومشاهد من حياة الناس يغلُب عليها طابع الحزن والأسى

[Mostafa Galal · Rating 2 out of 5]

مجموعة قصص من أسوأ ما قرأت، الأفكار تقليدية و هناك مبالغة شديدة في الوصف تشتت القارئ في النهاية، في القصة الاولى مثلاً أسهب الكاتب في وصف منزل الطفلة بطلة القصة و الدكان الذي أشترت منه الحلوى بشكل مستفز رغم عدم وجود أي مبرر درامي قوي يستدعى كل هذا الوصف، القصص أحداثها قليلة يمكن تلخيصها في صفحتان أو ثلاث على أقصى تقدير دون أي أخلال بالمعنى

[Mahmoud Amr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine yourself trapped inside your own stream of mind flow and having a hyper sense of place, space and things. That was how reading this story collection was like.

"Hours of pride" was Edward Al-Kharrat's second published story collection. They were all written in the 60's from 61-69. This collection can be considered his fully fleshed first experience in experimental writing. Unlike his first collection *High walls", here Al-Kharrat is throwing all the traditional conventions narrativewise and plunge deep into the méandre and labyrinths of stream consciousness writing. Every single story in this collection is written in a stream consciousness+indirect speech monologues without giving the reader any clue of what is going on but gradually and sometimes nothing at all.

Its a very atmospheric work that does not only capture the tormented psyche, but also, has a very sense of place. Here the description of places and things is surreal, unlike the documentary style of realism, here its hectic in terms of description or in narrative alike. In each story, place, space and surrounding things are part of the story as much as the characters.

I have to say though that Al-Kharrat's pen is sp thorough, sublime and sadistic. He has the ability for example to write abt a rape without being low brow-splatterpunkish, but write and describe such a tragedy with a weird surrealistic poetic style that unifies eros & thanatos in one single block.