Beer In The Snooker Club
SynopsisPlot
Behind the bar at Jameel's in Cairo hang two mugs engraved with the names of Ram and Font. During their years together in London, they drank many a pint of Bass from these mugs. But there is no Bass in Nasser's Egypt, so Ram and Font have to make do with a heady mixture of beer, vodka and whisky. Yearning for Bass they long to be far from a revolution that neither serves the people nor allows their rich aunts to live the life of leisure they are accustomed to. Stranded between two cultures, Ram and Font must choose between dangerous political opposition and reluctant acquiescence.
Story
About this book
Beer in the Snooker Club, first published in 1964, follows two friends, Ram and Font, in Cairo during the years of Gamal Abdel Nasser's rule. Behind the bar at a place called Jameel's hang two mugs engraved with their names, souvenirs from their time together in London, where they drank pints of Bass ale. Back in Egypt, Bass is unavailable, so they mix beer, vodka, and whisky instead. The mugs serve as small monuments to a life elsewhere.
Ram and Font occupy an uncomfortable position between two worlds. Their years in England shaped their expectations, but returning to Cairo means living under a political order they find frustrating. The revolution, as they see it, neither improves ordinary life nor preserves the comfortable habits of their wealthy aunts. Caught in this gap, the two face a choice between open political opposition, which carries real danger, and a quiet acceptance they find difficult to stomach.
The novel belongs to the literature of emigration and displacement, set against a specific historical moment in Egypt. Its Cairo is a city of social clubs, family obligations, and political tension, observed through characters whose attachment to a foreign beer brand says as much about their loyalties as any speech could.
