The Compassionate Youth

He was most known for his calm, sobriety, and coolness. No one he knew ever recalled seeing him agitated or excited by sadness or joy. However, this nature of his was neither weakness nor cowardice. He would get angry when he felt the need to, but in his own way: no agitation, no insults, no quarrels, but rather strict punishment or terrible revenge.
Naguib Mahfouz is a genius at endings par excellence, and this is evident in all his works, as it is in this collection of short stories, matured with a depth of literary, human, and life experience. This collection includes nine short stories with nine brilliant endings that fit the event and the circumstances. In the story “April 1st,” Ali Effendi, the school secretary, faces a financial crisis, and his wealthy aunt refuses to help him, believing he wishes for her death so he can inherit her. His self-discipline does not prevent him from agreeing with the nurse to delay giving his aunt her medicine until she dies in exchange for a reward he will grant her after he inherits the fortune. In the story “The Price of a Wife,” a husband learns of his wife’s infidelity with her lover. He demands the lover pay for his sexual intercourse with his wife, taking a riyal from him. He then gathers the wife’s family, throws the riyal in front of them, and asks her to tell them the story behind the riyal. She asks permission to leave, commits suicide, and other brilliant endings.