Utopia

Basically, one of the most -if not the most- famous books written by Dr. Ahmed Khaled Tawfik. My first impression of the book as a whole is how the similarities between the vision Dr. Ahmed has had for the future and our reality is quite shocking. Amazed by his foresight, people kept writing about Dr. Ahmed’s utopia online quoting chunks of it and relating to the circumstances of some characters in the book. This is why I basically had most of the book spoiled for me one quote at a time but without context. It was nice to finally read the book all together.

It is true that the author had incredible foresight. I remember needing to stop at the middle of the book just to check that this book was actually written in 2008. Although, to assume that the total collapse of the middle class would be in such short time (he predicted by 2020), is somewhat bold to me. I don’t compare by anyway to Dr. Ahmed but If i’m gonna guess when this inevitable event is going to happen, I’d say in no less than 50 -more or less- years

As for the story itself, it was so captivating and had such deep meanings. I enjoyed figuring out the connections and promptly analyzing in my head the double meanings of the conversations among the characters. In fact, I had to finish the whole book in two seatings exactly. It is certainly not the kind of books you can just leave aside for a few days then come back to again.

As for the writing, it was somewhat redundant with a considerable amount -for such a short novel- of filler words. I know it is intentional and that it supposedly adds value to the story but I genuinely didn’t like it. I hate to admit that there were some points in the book where I had to skip with my eyes ahead a few lines to make sure he wasn’t repeating himself again. However the plot of the story and the eagerness of wanting to know what happens next constantly kind of overshadowed the problems of the writing.

I loved everything in the book besides the writing problems and how short it is, I’ll give it a solid 8.5/10