Haag's Many Alexandrias

Abstract

Haag'sManyAlexandrias BRUCE RED WINE I. -LV-Lichael haag knows Egypt.Both writer and photographer, hismanybooks includeEgypt:Cadogan Guides (London 2004), The Timeline History of Egypt (New York2005), TheRoughGuide to Tutankhamun (London 2005), and Cairo Illustrated(Cairo 2006). The first threeare good to read because theyhave a pointof view, writtenby an opinionatedguide with a sharp eye, who's sometimesacerbic,always acute. You may not agree with everything hesays;nevertheless, he'scompelling, youlikelisteningto his voice. These books are also handyreferences, good places to getfacts - but as everyoneknowsor should know,factscan be deceiving.Somewherewell east of Suez, during the"official Inquiry"nearthebeginning ofLordJim, Marlow says,"They demandedfactsfrom[Jim], as iffacts could explainanything."1 Conrad knewhow littlefactsexplainabout humanexperience, and hispresentation offacts oftenservesto deepenmystery, a majoraspectofhisart. Haag's otherworkshave a similareffect. They read like literature. The productsof a culturaland literary historian, theyelucidatethepast, uncoverthe backgroundof people and events,and thendeepenthemystery thatConrad cherished .UnlikeConrad,however, whosedisdainoffactsleaves theportof Singaporeunidentified as theprobablelocation ofJim'sinquest,2 Haag situateshimself squarelyand unambiguouslyin a real port, as the followingtitlesindicate: Alexandria:CityofMemory(New Haven 2004), Alexandria Illustrated(Cairo 2004), and VintageAlexandria: Photographsof the City,1860-1960 (Cairo 2008).* He is curARION I7.3 WINTER 2OIO 134 HAAG'S MANY ALEXANDRIAS rently working ona biography ofLawrence Durrell, alsoto be published byYale,and onceitis completed, Haag will havehis"Alexandrian Quartet," as Durrell hadhis,thenovelsJustine , Balthazar, Mountolive, andClea.Moreover, like Durrell, Haag emphasizes Alexandria's Mediterranean heritage , notitsIslamic, andMediterranean refers toethnic diversity , inhabitants often fluent in Greek, French, Italian, Ladino, Arabic, andEnglish. 2. Alexandria: CityofMemory concentrates on C. P.Cavafy, E. M. Forster, and LawrenceDurrell.To thistradition shouldnowbe addedMichaelHaag.3One city, onemuse, many views. Thegrouping, however, doesnotinclude someonelikeAndr é Aciman. He isnotinthislineage. Hishighly praised OutofEgypt: A Memoir (NewYork1994)isanexquisite andwonderful story ofa Sephardic family anditsrelations as they liveinAlexandria prior tothediaspora ofthe early1960s. (The family's flight was an eventual consequenceofGamalAbdelNasser 'srevolution of1952.)Like Haag'sbooks, Aciman's narrative iscompelling, butitisnot whatI wouldcallAlexandrian. The contrast helpsto define thecategory. Writers in the Alexandrian tradition makethecityparamount or,at the very least, giveitspecial prominence, butAciman's subject is notAlexandria - it'shis family and Sephardic roots.His Alexandria ismarginal andwithout vivid identity. Itdoesn't have,inDurrell's preferred term, a "deusloci,"a spirit of place. AlthoughAciman'sblue Mediterranean dazzles supreme - "that colorbluelining thelimitless horizon, quiet, serene, and forever beckoning: the sea"4 - thecityitself shrinks to a pleasing corniche, a seasideresort where fasci- *Michael Haag, Alexandria:Cityof Memory(New Haven: Yale University Press,2004), xiv + 368 pages,$37.00; VintageAlexandria : Photographsof the City,1860-1960 (Cairo: AmericanUniversity in Cairo Press,2008), x + 139 pages,$39.95. BruceRedwine 135 natingpeopleconverge, a Levantine Magic Mountain,witha French, Italian,andJewish milieu.Nor does he acknowledge hisAlexandrianpredecessors, makingonlytwo slightreferencesto Cavafyand noneat all to either Forster or Durrell.5 The traditionproposed here requiressome explanation. Durrell calls Alexandria his "capital of Memory,"6and Haag aptlychooses a variantofthisphraseas hisown subtitle , forAlexandriahas manystrataofmemory: Hellenistic, Roman, Islamic,Mediterranean.Cavafy,of course, began thewholeapproachofmining thecityas a sourceofhistorical memory, but he largelywent unnoticeduntilForster shonea spotlight on himin his seminalAlexandria:A Historyand a Guide (Alexandria1922) and theninPharosand Pharillon(London 1923). In 1986, Haag publisheda new editionof Forster's Alexandria,and in an afterword, "The City of Words," recountedhis firstvisitto Alexandriain 1973 and acknowledgedhisdebtto Cavafy,addingthat"in Alexandriathepoet createda world in whichlaterForster and Durrellwould buildmanypossibleAlexandrias. "7 Remembering can be mythmaking. Cavafydied in 1933, buthismemory is incorporated intheQuartetas thepresidinggeniusofthosenovels ,as "theold poetofthecity"(AQ 18, 203). What Cavafybegan has been amplyand ablydescribedbyEdmundKeeleyinCavafy 'sAlexandria:Studyofa MythinProgress(Princeton 1976) and byPinchin inAlexandriaStill :Forster, Durrell,and Cavafy(Princeton 1977). And Cavafy'seminentpositionas poet is secure,as attestedby Daniel Mendelsohn's recently published "Constantine Cavafy:'As Good as GreatPoetryGets.'"8 However greatCavafy'spoetry, thecontrastremainsbetweentheshabbinessofthecityitself and therichness ofits past. Forster emphasizesthispointin Pharosand Pharillon. He ruefully describesRue Rosette (the splendid Canopic Way of theHellenisticperiod)as one of thecity's"premier thoroughfare [s]" and then exclaims,as thoughthe street were now something out of Pope's Dunciad, "Oh it is so dull! Its dullnessis reallyindescribable. "9 Fifty-three years 136 HAAG'S MANY ALEXANDRIAS laterKeeleybluntly writes,"Today'sAlexandriastrikes one first of all as squalid."10Littleevidenceofthecity'sformer grandeuris visible,for those ruins are eitherdestroyed, buried,or underwater - or in the case of Alexander'slost tomb,possiblyall three. There are exceptions,naturally.JeanYves Empereur's heroicefforts in...