JIMMY, THE TALENTED COIFFEUR (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Makram's father Hag Younes was a barber in a small village called Timsaheia in the Said (southern province of Egypt). Being a Copt (Christian Egyptian) he catered to his fellow Copts while a Moslem barber had the Moslem clientele. As Makram entered his adolescence the family moved to Cairo to escape the dreary village life and provide a better future for their son. Hag Younes worked for a time at a ladies' hairdressing salon, learned the new techniques needed for the human female head and eventually bought the business when the owners emigrated. He sent Makram to an expensive English school and his dream was to see him enter university. It was not to be. After graduating Makram joined his father and found that he had an extraordinary talent for this profession. He worked for a couple of years with his father but dreamed of better things. He was hired by a luxury salon in Zamalek, an exclusive district of Cairo, and there he flourished. He loved to rub shoulders and indulge in the gossip of the idle rich ladies that formed "Chez Raymond's" clientele. Makram, who took on the professional name "Jimmy", as was the usual practice, was a funny, ugly fellow with effeminate mannerisms and a gentle heart. He fell in love and married the servant girl working at the household of another family from Timsaheia and had a son. His insights on human nature, the gossip he imbibed with so much pleasure entertain us throughout the story.