The City Always Wins
Omar Robert Hamilton
MCD – Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The City Always Wins, the debut novel from filmmaker Omar Robert Hamilton, chronicles the hope, violence and crushing disappointment of Egypt’s recent revolution, blow by shocking blow.
The events are related chronologically, focusing on a group of young media activists and in particular on a couple, Mariam and Khalil, as their seemingly unquenchable optimism is eroded to bitter disillusionment.
The novel is divided into three parts: Tomorrow, Today, and Yesterday, reflecting the all-too familiar cycle of hope for the future, through fear and turmoil, to jaded defeat. The structure, while reflecting the chaos of the moment, doesn’t lend itself to easy reading: Tweets, radio broadcasts, headlines and interior monologues (in the first, second and third persons) jumble together, sometimes bewilderingly.
The characterisation and narrative arc also leave a lot to be desired; as a novel, The City Always Wins is not always successful. The breathless, unpunctuated, stream-of-consciousness representations of the terror and violence of the riots are so relentless that they become difficult to connect with. This is related to the difficulty of reporting unspeakable violence, and the issue of compassion fatigue: central preoccupations of the book.
While not always an easy or even enjoyable read, The City Always Wins manages to communicate the urgency, terror, promise and heartbreak of the Arab Spring.
Words – Liza Cox
