The Drumming Sands



The Drumming Sands, by Ibrahim Al-Kouni, is an Arabic short story about two men who begin a journey across the desert. Right from the beginning they face a few major problems such as the land rover breaking down, no food or water, and being stranded in the desert. This is a story of suffering, danger, determination, and the realization that death is inevitable. I felt this story was well written and much easier to follow compared to the other stories in this book. I also feel that this story was far more entertaining than any other story we have read so far.




Cairo is a Small City


Cairo is a Small City, by Nabil Gorgy, is an Arabic story about a man who becomes infatuated with a girl he sees every day there is a full moon. After seven months the girl invites him to her house and has her father pick the man up. Rather than go to the girl's house the father takes him to a different place. It was discovered that this man had once killed somebody and needed to be executed for the crime. This is what took place at the end of the story, as two or three men grabbed him, held his head back, and cut it off. I felt this story was a little dry and slow right up until the last paragraph, then it became interesting. If you exclude the first six pages, this was an entertaining story.


The Persian Carpet

The Persian Carpet, by Hanan Shaykh, is about a family that was torn apart by divorce. The father had custody of his two children and was ordered to take them to visit their mother. When they visited their mother the oldest daughter noticed that the family's Persian carpet was missing. As they soon found out, a nearly blind man stole the carpet from them for no apparent reason. The thing that made it interesting was the blind man was a trusted friend of the family. This story is an example of why you can't always trust those who you may think are your friends.


Flower Crazy

Flower Crazy, by Gamil Atia Ibrahim, is an Arabic story about a woman who is running around cheating on her husband. The man she is cheating on him with is known by the townspeople as, "Flower Crazy." They call him this because he always has flowers and he always brings them to the women he is after. This story was mildly entertaining and hard to follow. It seemed to jump around quite a bit and had no logical flow.