(listening to Skalpel - Theme from ‘Behind the Curtain’ while writing this… highly recommended)
I saw Joris Luyendijk for the first time in a talkshow called ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Joris has written two books on his visits to Cairo that lasted for one and two years respectively. Both books are best sellers and challenge some of the common thoughts about Islam culture. For some reason, I didn’t like the guy very much. He came across as arrogant, all-knowing about the Islam culture and Egypt, just because he had been there for a couple of years or so.

I had just been to Cairo myself and to be honest, I got back with mixed feelings. Good feelings about the country and the people being so hospitable, but also weird feelings because I simply could not understand a whole lot about the culture. Had Joris Luyendijk done a better job at explaining that his book really is a good one to read if you want to know more about the differences between the western world and for example the Muslim culture in Cairo I would have definitely bought and read his book(s) earlier. For some reason though I didn’t do that and I promised myself to put Cairo on my ‘places-to-visit-again-list’, just to find out more about those differences that I didn’t understand back then (and of course to enjoy the country). I wanted to do that myself, instead of having this seemingly arrogant guy learn me something about it.

Don’t worry, Cairo still is on that same list, but in the meantime I did read Joris’ first book titled Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw (literally translated as: ‘A good man sometimes hits (or slaps) his wife’) and I have to be honest here: this book is nice and helped in my understanding of the culture in Cairo, Egypt! Of course the title is very provocative and that’s one of the reasons I didn’t like it a lot at first. I can’t help but get the impression when I see a provocative title that the book is bad and that the title is still trying to attract readers to the book.

Only in the end does Joris explain why he chose the title. I’m not going to explain that here. It’s not that the book would be any less interesting if you would know already. It would however be silly to try to explain the reasoning of the entire book in a single blog entry. If that would have been possible, reading the book would be a waste of time and it’s not!

On the contrary, how much I disliked him on TV, Joris is a good writer, has an entertaining style and seriously makes you think. The book is not a page turner, sometimes you’ll have to work your way through a couple of pages because some passages are a bit boring, but then again, sometimes skipping one of two paragraphs is not such a big deal–the book doesn’t have a plot whereby you cannot miss a single page.

Concluding: I’m glad somebody (can’t remember who) has recommended this book to me. It made all things Cairo a lot clearer. I’m looking forward (even more) to going there again!