The Mirage

A psychological study of the first order with a subtly Freudian flavor, The Mirage is the autobiographical account of Kamil RuÕba, a tortured soul who finds himself struggling unduly to cope with lifeÕs challenges. The internal torment and angst that dog him throughout his life and the tragic, ironic turns of events that overtake him as a young man are, to a great extent, the outworkings of his faulty upbringing. At the same time, they work together to drive home the novelÕs underlying theme: the illusory, undependable nature of the world in which we live and the call to seek, beyond the outward and the ephemeral, that which is inward and enduring. The narrative, full of pathos, draws the reader unwittingly into a vicarious experience of KamilÕs agonies and ecstasies. As such, it is a specimen of MahfouzÕs prose at its finest.