Tucked away in a rundown quarter, just out of sight of fashionable
downtown Cairo, a group of intellectuals gather regularly to smoke
hashish in Hakeem's den. The den is the center of their lives, both a
refuge and a stimulus, and at the center of the den is the remarkable
man who keeps their hashish bowls topped up--Rowdy Salih. While his
former life is a mystery to his loyal clientele of writers, painters,
film directors, and even window dressers, each sees himself reflected in
Salih; but without his humor, humility, or insight, or his occasional
passions fueled by hootch. And when the nation has to face its own
demons during the peace initiative of the 1970s, it is Rowdy Salih who
speaks for them all. This is a comic novel with a broken heart very like
Salih himself, whose warm rough voice calls out long after we have
recovered from the novel's painful conclusion.