A Story Without Beginning or End

The man said that and left. The young man and the young woman stood looking at each other. He asked her, “Are you hesitant like your father?” She replied with sweet calm, “You know my opinion perfectly. Do you want me to wait until my past is revealed to me?” I don’t care if you find your past or if your past finds you. I’m happy, but I’m haunted by anxiety. And you love me, don’t you? The only thing that connects me to this place is your love. That’s enough for us. I’ll work and get married, but your father is hesitant. No, I know my father perfectly. I imagine I’ve earned his trust. You are trustworthy. Let us allow God to provide us with happiness. Let us trust him from the bottom of our hearts. On the balcony of the villa, high on the mountain, the conversation took place in the pitch darkness. The old man sitting in the rocking chair asked, “What’s behind you?” The old man, who was standing before him, replied, “Oh, the hotel owner is a kind and cunning man, and he did everything he could to discover his passion.” Even if the young man didn’t look directly into himself, they preferred indirect means. People’s curiosity was aroused, but their curiosity no longer aroused me. Good, and he remained unknown like a mystery. Meaning in his own eyes. Of course… and how the story went, love appeared again.”
A hotel, guests, and Naguib Mahfouz’s imagination soar in search of a story without beginning or end. There is no doubt that in this story, Naguib Mahfouz did not lose sight of reality. He wrote his stories after experiencing them on the ground, as he lived his story in its real atmosphere. With a touch of imagination, he weaved his creations, which derive their importance and spread from their realism. In this story, Naguib Mahfouz did not deviate from this methodology. The heroes of this story are real people, and the events are real events.
Thus, through his simple style, Naguib Mahfouz draws you in to follow the events of this story, focusing on its characters: Zainab Ali Uwais, Sheikh Mahmoud, Sheikh Ammar, and others. These characters Naguib Mahfouz employed to depict Egyptian society at that time, attempting through them, and through their dialogues and digressions, to offer a critique of the ideas, customs, and ideological, social, and behavioral behaviors that loomed over that society. The writer succeeded to a large extent in this story, which… Despite its lack of beginning and end, it engages the reader between its lines, imagining a beginning and an end that he or she can determine.