Changes

|title=Beer in the Snooker Hall

|author=Waguih Ghali

|reviewer=Robin Leggett

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=220

|publisher=Serpent's Tail

|date=December 2010

|isbn=978-1846687563

}}

Waguih Ghali's only novel, first published in 1964, is set in 1950s Egypt where the English have just left and the country is in great social and political change, and is under Army rule. Ram is an English educated, Copt Egyptian of aristocratic background, but his side of the family are penniless and dependent on the good will of manipulative, rich aunts. Ram and his best friend Font (who works in the eponymous snooker club) struggle to come to terms with this emerging Egypt. These are the facts of the plot, such as it is, but in reality this book is as ambiguous as the situation in which Ram finds himself. The book is like a delicate soufflé; it appears light on the surface but is deeply measured and brings out a myriad of conflicting views.

The challenges of social and political change are also addressed, albeit in a very different way, in this year's Booker-nominated [[Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey]].

{{commenthead}}