Jim Fonseca's Reviews > Respected Sir

A story of a man devoted to – obsessed with – moving up to the top of the Egyptian bureaucracy.

Othman came from dirt-poor origins. His father was a donkey cart driver and they lived in an alley filled with animal dung. But he manages to go to school and he starts to work his way up from mail clerk.

He calculates how many years it will take him to move up the grades. Othman continues to study for advanced degrees, volunteers for extra duties, sucks up to superiors. He is the first person into the office and the last one out every day for YEARS. He has no friends, no social life. He is the perfect employee.

The main character even views his position in a religious light: “A government position is a brick in the edifice of the state, and the state is an exhalation of the spirit of God, incarnate on earth.” Once in a while Othman’s plans hit a stumbling block – a nephew of a higher-up gets the promotion instead of him, but he persists.



So obsessed is he with advancement that, not once, but twice, he breaks up relationships with women he loves – and they love him --- because he knows they are too low in social status to advance his career. (view spoiler)[ Very late in life Othman finally finds a match with a well-off younger woman through an arranged marriage. And, as we all know is coming, it all ends in ashes. (hide spoiler)]

Anyone who knows American bureaucracy will find the accuracy of the portrayal of the Egyptian bureaucracy uncannily familiar. It’s all here: sick leave, pensions, vacation time, grade levels, office politics, covering the rear ends of superiors. I imagine the Egyptian system was based on the British bureaucratic system.



The author (1911-2006) knows of what he writes – he was a bureaucrat his entire life while a part-time author. Even so, he is regarded as the classic man of Egyptian letters and the one who brought the modern novel to Egyptian readers.

Mahfouz is best known for his “Cairo Trilogy.” (I’ve read and reviewed the first two: Palace Walk and Midaq Alley, and I’m working on the third, Palace of Desire.) He won the Nobel Prize in 1988. This book I’m reviewing, Respected Sir, is a fairly quick read (200 pages) and despite the boring sound of its subject matter, bureaucracy, I found it quite fascinating.

Top photo of Cairo from bbc.com
The author from thebookerprizes.com