“The Queue”
An exploitative landowner is persistent in his attempts to deny the ability of peasants to earn a living. A common theme running through the work of the author is displayed in the commitment to solidarity of the underprivileged to work together to thwart the efforts of the ownership class.
“It is a Game?”
A metaphorical tale of colonialist tension sublimated into athletics. The political tensions existing between Egyptians and their British oppressors is embodied in a British v. Egyptian children’s game with tragic results.
“Hard Up”
Upward mobility is reversed for Abdou as a series of events charts his collapse down the economic ladder from the stability and respect of being a cook to being forced to sell his blood to make money. And then even course is taken away when he develops anemia and is no longer allowed to continue.
“The Errand”
A lawman volunteers to deliver a woman past the verge of suffering a mental breakdown to a facility in Cairo. This is one of the author’s “city stories” in which little action takes place and the primary effect is thematic representation of the effects and consequences of urban isolation, alienation and anxiety.
“The Wallet”
The title object belongs to the father of a poverty-stricken young boy grown resentful because economic circumstances have directly impacted his ability to enjoy a movie with his friends. He resolves to slip into his parents’ bedroom while they sleep and steal the necessary amount. Instead, the discovery an empty wallet makes the full extent his situation and his actions clear and he experiences the shame which the author points out as yet another inescapable building block of poverty.
“A Stare”
Another example of the existential anxiety of big city life is encompassed in this deceptively simple tale of a typical urban dweller who just happens to be in the right place at the right moment that a tray being carried on the head of a young girl nearly topples over. He corrects it as she goes on her way, his vision is maintained on her path. The tray seems about ready to topple again as he rushes across the boulevard to be there at the right moment a second time, he is knocked down. Upon getting up, he realizes the tray’s movement was only in response to her excitement at watching other kids play.
“A Quarter of a Jasmin Patch”
The social tensions of economic disparity is displayed in this ironic tale of a landowner taking a peasant to task for improper maintenance of the titular parcel of property. In a display intended to exhibit his superiority over the lower classes, he takes a hoe to the ground to show how to do things properly, but is not even able to crack through the topsoil. He must be carried back to his home as a result. Meanwhile, the peasant needs just one attempt to rip the soil apart using the very same hoe.
