Arabian Nightmare - Softcover

Irwin, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014010030X ISBN 13: 9780140100303

Publisher: Penguin UK, 1988

Synopsis

Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN:0140112162 / ISBN13:9780140112160.

Robert Irwin's seductive and disturbing fantasy classic takes the framework of the Thousand and One Nights and turns it inside out and upside down to create a phantasmagoric and sensual rendering of ancient Cairo.

The hero and guiding force of this epic fantasy is an insomniac young man who, unable to sleep, guides the reader through the narrow streets of Cairo-a city mysterious and full of deceit and trickery. He narrates a complex tangle of dreams and imaginings that describe an atmosphere which is constantly shifting between sumptuously learned orientalism, erotic adventure, and dry humor. The result is a thought-provoking Chinese puzzle box of sex, philosophy, and theology.

Reminiscent of Jorges Borges, Italo Calvino, and Umberto Eco, this cult classic is finally back in print in a U.S. edition.

About this title

About the Author

ROBERT IRWIN, the eminent Arabist, is the author of The Arabian Nightmare, Exquisite Corpse, Dangerous Knowledge, Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh, and The Limits of Vision, also available from Overlook.

From Publishers Weekly

Irwin's reissued 1983 classic combines the genres of travelogue, fable, dream narrative, novel and confessional into one beguiling whole. Balian, an English spy hired by France to go on a fact-finding mission to Cairo in 1486, is surprised when one of his fellow travelers is kidnapped. He is even more surprised when he is afflicted by the "Arabian Nightmare": he begins to have very confusing dreams and wakes up bleeding from the nose and mouth. A mysterious figure named the Father of the Cats claims to want to help Balian but does he? To make matters worse, there are rumors that a vicious murderer is on the loose in Cairo. Every attempt Balian makes to leave the city is foiled, as one supposedly well-intentioned figure after another leads him into the ever-deepening maze of the city's underworld, populated by whores, laughing dervishes, talking apes and lepers who all weave their respective spells with distinct power. Moving gracefully through a boggling number of reversals, stories-within-stories, and false solutions, the narrative winds its way toward a conclusion as baffling and profound as everything that has preceded it. There are plenty of moments when the story becomes too confusing to follow but this is clearly part of the plan. A work of fiction with the subtle, intoxicating architecture of a poem, this cult favorite clearly deserves renewed exposure and consideration. B&w illus.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 014010030X
• ISBN 13: 9780140100303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282