41 pages • 1 hour read
Alaa Al AswanyThe Yacoubian Building
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Zaki Bey
Zaki Bey is the first character the author introduces. As he walks along the street, a 10-minute stroll turns into an hour. He stops and talks with everyone he knows. His reputation proceeds him; he is known as a womanizer and a lothario, a man who has fallen on slightly harder times, although this has in no way diminished his love of women. Young men come up to him and ask him questions about sex, which he is more than happy to answer. This amalgamation of life on the Cairo streets, this openness about sex, and the importance of a public reputation are all important themes within the novel, and all of them are embodied in Zaki Bey’s introduction.
More than just embodying the novel’s themes, however, Zaki is also a useful bellwether for the narrative structure of the novel. He begins the novel as a womanizer, is chastened by his humiliating experiences with his sister, and then falls in love with a woman who is attempting to trick him out of his money. Throughout all of this, there is an innate pathetic nature to Zaki’s character. Even at the beginning of the novel, his life seems somewhat hollow. He entertains a series of women, seducing them and then moving on to the next. He is an old man, his social status in freefall, as evidenced by the downgrading in quality of his cigars from expensive Cuban imports to cheap local equivalents. He longs for a past (the European-ized Cairo of his youth) that will never return and seeks to reclaim this youth through his womanizing. In many ways, Zaki has never grown up. He has simply continued to exist in the exact same fashion for many years. His servant is stealing from him, people treat him as a strange and befuddling object, and his lifestyle does not seem sustainable.
This pathetic life eventually reaches its crescendo when Zaki is robbed. A lover takes his money and his sister’s ring. Very suddenly, Zaki realizes that he has no recourse; he will be either humiliated or beaten. After further humiliation from his sister, however, Zaki’s chastening experience leads him to real love. His relationship with Busayna, though built on shaky foundations, blossoms into real romance. He employs his skills of seduction to sway Busayna to his side, treating her better than anyone has ever done. Zaki’s road to resolution is embedded within his character.
Hatim Rasheed
Hatim is an individual privileged like few others. While the novel takes great pains to portray the difficulties of Cairo’s poorest residents, Hatim is born into wealth and is employed in a position of repute. His role as a newspaper editor is well-paid and well-regarded, and his privilege allows him to avoid scrutiny for behavior and sexual mores that would land other people in trouble with the law. However, the innate tragedy of Hatim’s character is that—for all his wealth and privilege—he is a deeply unhappy man.
After being seduced by an older man when he was only nine years old, Hatim, who is homosexual, has been chasing that relationship ever since. His parents were rarely at home, so the love he felt for the servant with whom he fell in love was his only source of happiness from a very young age. After his father’s death, the servant was fired, and Hatim has spent his entire life trying and failing to replicate the happiness he felt with the servant. Furthermore, he must conduct his search in a clandestine manner. He cannot publicly declare his affections for other men, as homosexuality is not socially accepted. Thus, while Hatim might be wealthy and powerful, he would likely exchange all of his wealth and power for the chance to be free to love.
The novel tells the story of how Hatim comes close to finding this love after he seduces Abd Rabbuh, a young married man. In this particular relationship, Hatim transposes his defining relationship and becomes the older man leading the younger man into a new and exciting world. He uses his money and his contacts to provide Abduh with the means of living comfortably. The money means little to Hatim; he prefers to spend it on ensuring that Abduh is comfortable and available, even if he is still technically married with a son. In this moment, Hatim is happy.
His happiness does not last long. Driven by guilt after the death of his son, Abduh leaves, and Hatim finds himself depressed and suicidal. His attempt to win back Abduh ends badly, leaving Hatim’s tragic search for happiness set to continue in perpetuity.
Taha
Taha begins the novel as an ambitious young man who has spent his entire life dreaming of joining the police force. He has meticulously researched every aspect of the entrance exams to guarantee that he passes his test, but he fails. The interviewer asks him about his father’s job: Taha lied on the form, claiming that his father was a civil servant rather than a doorman. This is Taha’s inescapable shame, his inherent character flaw. For all of his planning, he could never escape the shame of his circumstances. This shame leads to Taha’s entire life falling apart.
As well as his desire to join the police force, Taha’s youth is defined by his relationship with Busayna. While they have been together for years, their relationship becomes increasingly fraught. Busayna’s harassment at the hands of her employer leads to her being distrustful of everyone, while Taha’s failure leads him to struggle with his own existence. Though they continue together for some time, their relationship is doomed from the very beginning of the novel and slowly unravels thereafter.
At university, Taha tries to find answers and alternative opportunities in his life. Lost and directionless, he ultimately takes his cues not from the university but from the religious scholars he meets while attending classes. He meets a number of students at the mosque who introduce him to Sheikh Shakir. To these people, Taha’s poverty and his father’s job do not matter. He finds an acceptance that has been missing for his entire life.
Even when his newfound belief drives a wedge between him and Busayna, Taha continues to delve deeper into the fanatical world opening up before him. In an ironic turn, this association leads to him being interrogated and abused by the police. The institution he dreamed of attending becomes his greatest enemy, and his new friends provide him with the means to exact revenge. His final act is a terrorist attack on a police official, bringing Taha full circle. Taha dies, driven to his death by Cairo’s unforgiving economic circumstances and others’ willingness to take advantage of him.
