For all fans of Ghali and his brilliant Beer in the Snooker Club:
Cornell University’s Deborah Starr recently sent out a listserv message informing readers that Waguih Ghali’s unpublished papers, diaries (1964-1968), and manuscript fragments are now available at http://ghali.library.cornell.edu/.
I have mixed feelings about this: I can’t imagine Ghali, who committed suicide in 1969, would really like his unpublished papers, diaries, and manuscript fragments going online. On the other hand, I too am a Ghali groupie, and will surely succumb to reading this material.
More:
ArabLit: ‘Beer in the Snooker Club’: Egypt Then and Egypt Now
Tanjara: waguih ghali’s bbc talk on visit to israel post-1967 war
LRB: Ahdaf Soueif reviews ‘After a Funeral’ by Diana Athill, her book on Ghali
I’m currently reading the unabridged journals of Sylvia Plath, who also killed herself at 30, and i was thinking the same thing – would she have wanted all this raw material published?
But it’s amazing to get such an intimate insight into her life and thoughts, and I feel the same way about Ghali.
Yes, I’ve been having these discussions and Plath certainly came up. Hussein Omar also notes that in “After a Funeral,” Diana Athill noted that Ghali went into fits of rage when she peeked into his diary (understandably). And now the whole world can peek. I feel really strange about it.
Too true, I am Waguih’s cousin and was his close friend, D. Athill just took over all his papers and refused to hand them over to his family.
Amazing!! thank you for posting this!
thanks for the links!
You’re so welcome.