Lyrics Alley
by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, R180)
This story is about Mahmoud Bey, the patriarch of the Sudanese Abuzeid dynasty. His son, Nur is paralysed in a swimming accident and sees his sporting and academic aspirations wither with inertia.
Bey has two wives: one a young, gorgeous Egyptian woman who is accustomed to a modern lifestyle; the other an elder, plump Sudanese woman who is less attractive and more culturally rooted.
The two do not get along well and their bickering is a poison in the Abuzeid household.
Bey has two children by each wife. Nassir, Nur’s elder brother, with whom he shares a mother (the plump one), is the disappointment in the family.
His perpetual drinking makes many in the family wish that it was he and not Nur who was paralysed.
Another wrench to the Abuzeid family is Nur’s engagement to his cousin, Soyara, which is called off because Bey does not want his niece marrying an invalid, albeit his own son.
At the pinnacle of it all, the Egyptian wife threatens to take off with her two children, as she’s had enough of the Sudanese lifestyle.
The book is a narrative of how a single accident tears a family apart, before love prevails to pull it back together again.
If you read it creatively, you pick up the important fact that if a family member is tragically ill, the rest of the family catches illness as well.
Whether it mani-fests as inhibition, sadness, intolerance or depression, one will always feel the need to relate to the agony of those one loves.
Embellishing this simple story, Aboulela adds sophistication in the detail of the storytelling.
The story reaches far wider than the Abuzeid family, painting a vivid picture of a community.
Lyrics Alley is a cultural indulgence, a mental journey. – Tshepo Tshabalala