There is some beautiful prose here and a questioning of ideals and culture, but it's messy, weird, and at times disturbing. It sprints constantly from poignant to "fake deep FB caption" to poetic or clever, but it never stops being engaging.

Our main character is in a "what's understood need not be explained" sometimes toxic relationship with a once bright-eyed, but deeply troubled former photographer, revolutionary, and recovering drug addict. Neither are named in the story. Neither need to be with each other before some intense therapy. No woman can heal a broken man; he has to want it for himself. Both fetishize, condescend, underestimate, and pleasantly surprise each other.

There are side characters, but the focus is on these two. Ms. Lady wants a soul-searching journey and to reclaim her roots. She acknowledges she had a diluted version of her culture from wanting to fit or sell the best version of herself. 

Her father had his own experience with that. On his part, he used his heritage as way to market and differentiate himself. For example, changing his actual name Freddy to Fouad to better sell his holistic expertise to foreigners seeking to exotify him. The relationship between Ms. Lady, her father, and the mother (they're getting divorced) is just as interesting as the relationship between Lady's western values and Egyptian cultures colliding and meshing, and the equally tumultuous relationship with Guy from Shobrakheit. Guy from Shobrakheit has issues and demons, but you understand why he does until he becomes increasingly too abusive to have sympathy for.

Unlike most though Ms Lady has a claim to her roots and wants to fully explore it. It happens clumsily along the way from some struggles from being an outsider, a woman, or her western upbringing. Beyond that, the bits about the revolution and the fallout afterwards are disheartening. You see how it affects Guy from Shobrakheit, the people of the city, and even Ms Lady who can only chase the ghost, never having been there to experience the dashed dreams. The author beautifully describes the second-guessing of everything once you THINK you've overcome culture shock or expertly learned something only to find a new layer. 

Part 3 is an absolute doozy! You'll never see it coming.

I'm not often interested in analyzing a book critically now that I've finished school, but I wouldn't mind trying to dissect this. All its moving pieces and parts. I enjoyed the reading experience. And the bite-sized chapters!