Sex

Sex permeates Naguib Mahfouz's novel Miramar. The five residents of the Miramar Pension and the owner of a news kiosk all fixate to one degree or another on beautiful and shapely Zohra Salama, whom the aged owner of the pension, Mme. Mariana, hires as a maid to lighten her own work. Mariana is herself a faded beauty, once a lover of sexagenarian Tolba Marzuq who returns to the pension. Her title of Madame appears to be regarded in Alexandria as more than a polite French title.

One resident, Hosny Allam, when renting a room, certainly hopes that this is the case, particularly after getting a view of Zohra. Hosny is a catalyst for violence among the men who lust for Zohra and wonder why he constantly drives his car around town. They do not suspect the sex-obsessed life to which he confesses to the reader in his own...