The Day The Leader Was Killed by Naguib Mahfouz pg 3-34

Summary

The story starts off with an introduction to the early morning life of a house hold of four people. The narrator, Muhtashimi, introduces his son, Fawwaz, his grandson, Elwan, and his daughter-in-law, Hanaa. The family is poor, and can barley meet the necessities of life. But at the same time Muhtashimi shows his faith in God as he continually asks the Lord to provide and protect his family. As well as his daily routine of listening to the Quran on the radio.

Elwan finds himself falling in love with a girl he works with, and who is also his neighbor, Randa. He wants to get married with here but one is not allowed to talk about an engagement before they come totatlly independant, but he desides to talk to his grandpa about it. Elwan and Randa get engaged, but both sides of the faimly is concerned, and both sides are poor. Almost everywhere he looks, Randa's parents gives him angry looks.

Quote

"They've all emigrated; only the idiot remains"(Mahfouz 22).

Reaction
Because the book is told from the omniscient point of view, Mahfaouz lets the reader get into the mind of more than one character. Each chapter of the story is either told by, Muhtashimi, Elwan, or Randa, Elwan's fiancee. But even more than the three main narrators gives their views as in the quote above. A woman who goes around cleaning houses named, Umm Ali, is talking to Muhtashimi with this quote which shows that Mahfaouz uses almost everyone to tell the story.