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90 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
Not Just Yet, is what I suppose will pass as a realistic fiction. It narrates and shed light on the 2011 revolution that took place in Egypt. The book is divided into 5 parts (The News, The Incidents, The Causes, Conclusion and Appendix) to give us and understanding of the events that unfolded in and around the year.
I remember Egypt being all over the news in 2011. But my knowledge about the turmoil was restricted to what the international media put up. This book thoroughly analyses and sheds light on those exact events but from a different p-o-v.
“It is intended in this book to study the news of individuals, rather than of the kings and higher classes. For you can find the latter in the writings of historians, newspapers, and the gossip of commons, and if you read the news of one of them you won’t need to know about the rest.”
The first segment, The News, gives us a perspective of the revolution through a series of blog posts, Tweets, Emails and Facebook posts by our protagonist. Then through the same it proceeds to shed light on the events that happen afterwards. It helps you understand how the revolution took place and what it stood for. It also helps us comprehend how it drifted apart from them and the common people. How it drifted apart from democracy.
With this, our protagonist starts getting frustrated in his helplessness. And with him, so do we.
“Middle-class people supporting the tyrant don’t really irritate me; this class never realize that the ship is sinking until they are two minutes away from drowning. What amazes me though are the lower-class people supporting the tyrant, the working class, those who are by the cruelty of the police and the thievery of the government and the stiffness of monopolists.”
The next segment, ‘The Incidents’ summarizes the incidents that led to the unwrapping of the events of the previous section. It is about the events and the sabotages that happen behind the back of our protagonist.
The following section, ‘The Causes’, tries to link all the uncoiling and the behavioural aspect of people to that of the Ottoman invasion. It shows us how our response and behaviours are deeply rooted to that of our ancestors.
‘The Conclusion’ boggles you and ‘The Appendix’ gives the book a sense of closure.
The book instantly grabs your attention with its plot and hooks you to it. You’ll keep wanted to know more and more about what happened in Egypt through this unique p-o-v. Again how the story is narrated through a thread of social media posts is very unique and intriguing. Also, message it sends is very important.
What didn’t work for me were the e-mails our protagonist shared with his loved ones. It seemed a bit out of place considering it was 2011 and he was referring to her as ‘my beloved’. It would have felt more real, had it been a bit more informal. Also, ‘The Causes’ section seemed a little stretched.