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Egypt Sabri Moussa. Seeds of Corruption. Mona N. Mikhail, tr. New York / Northampton, Massachusetts. Interlink. 2002. 169 pages. $12.95. ISBN 1-56656-457-3
SEEDS OF CORRUPTION, originally published in Arabic in 1980 as Fasad al-amkinah, is a quasiepic novel of adventure, self-exploration, desolation, and absurdity. Set in pre-1952 Egypt, its events are mostly desert-based in order to reflect the sternly barren life of its principal character, Nicola, an Italian adventurer and prospector. The novel also high-lights the plight of underprivileged Egyptians exploited by a corrupt monarchy and its puppet entourage and by unscrupulous foreigners who covet the country's natural resources. The central narrative of Nicola's tribulations and his acolytes' adventures overlays the dismal story of Egypt's peasants and miners, who are subjected to the capricious ill-treatment of foreigners and their royal protectors. The novel tacitly critiques the status quo prevalent in prerevolutionary Egypt.
Though Moussa occasionally employs reminiscence to build a complex and compelling plot, the novel's overall pattern is fundamentally linear-structurally and narratologically. Its opening hints clearly at the contours of Nicola's...