July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mahgub Abd al-Da'im is a poor Egyptian university student, skinny and bug-eyed, who revolts against his unhappy position in life by cutting a Faustian deal. To land a job with an influential politician, he agrees to wed, sight unseen, a woman whom the official has deflowered.

So goes the melancholy farce ``Cairo Modern,'' a 1945 novel by the late Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, just published in its first English translation by American University in Cairo Press.

Mahfouz, who wrote more than 50 works ranging from novels to plays, was a close observer of Egyptian society, recording its foibles and its eternal struggle at the intersection of East and West. As ``Cairo Modern'' opens, Mahgub and his pals debate the pros and cons of various philosophies as cures for what ails Egypt. One friend is wedded to Islam, another to socialism, a third to a nationalist party with capitalist leanings.

Mahgub, for his part, opts for ``liberation from everything: from values, ideals, belief systems and principles, from social culture as a whole.''

He remains undeterred even when his new wife turns out to be a chum's estranged fiancee. Having taken ``Satan for my role model,'' Mahgub decides to make the best of an awkward situation, craft a good living, and maybe get love out of it -- even though he must share his wife's sexual favors with his boss.

Cairo provides a good setting for such cynics. British colonial masters scheme behind the scenes. State workers pimp for their masters. Charity soirees serve as covers for groveling quests for favors.

Rigged Pageant

``Nothing astonishes me,'' Mahgub exclaims when he witnesses a beauty pageant being fixed in advance. ``The appointment of government officials is rigged, the award of contracts is rigged and elections themselves are rigged; so why shouldn't the choice of a beauty queen also be rigged?''

Though the book is set in 1930, it bears a sad resemblance to Cairo in 2008. Now as then, vast social and economic inequalities rule. Islam vies with secularism to win hearts and minds. College graduates face the prospect of dead-end careers, yet engage in the same kind of high-minded and formal political debates found in this English translation.

It's easy to find contemporary versions of Mahfouz's archetypes. I have one Egyptian friend, for example, who writes a blog espousing Trotsky's vision of world revolution with the earnestness of Ali Taha, the socialist in ``Cairo Modern.''

Other acquaintances follow the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's illegal but powerful Islamic political movement, dedicating themselves to study and self-improvement with the same conviction as Ma'mun Radwan, the book's Muslim militant.

Women and Wasta

There are even potential Mahgubs among the legions of Egyptian youth who, in conversing with a foreigner, will ask -- half-jokingly, half-longingly -- if he knows a woman who might like to marry a good, virile Egyptian. An older lady would do.

And everywhere you turn -- today, as in 1930 -- you find an obsession with wasta, the system of connections, bribery and horse-trading required to get anything done in Egypt. Any chat with an unemployed or underpaid young Egyptian man these days inevitably arrives at the value of wasta and his lack of it.

Wasta drives the plot of ``Cairo Modern.'' As the novel opens, Mahgub turns to a distant relative in hopes of landing a job, but becomes infatuated with the man's daughter and is too ashamed to beg. He then tries a former neighbor, whom he meets by chance at a train station.

The assistant of a prominent politician, the old neighbor sets in motion the marriage of convenience, meant to hide the official's sexual dalliance. Don't expect a happy ending.

Military Coup

``Cairo Modern'' feels curiously up to date. The book was written at a time of political turmoil. Strikes, Islamist plots, labor unrest and riots led, seven years after its publication, to the military overthrow of King Farouk, the last ruling monarch.

Does that fate await President Hosni Mubarak, already in power for 26 years? Unshackled from a real parliament and armed with dictatorial powers under emergency laws, he's more of a king than Farouk ever was. Taking wasta to new lengths, Mubarak has appointed his 44-year-old son Gamal to high-ranking jobs in the ruling party, putting him in a position to succeed his father.

For all the faults of monarchical Egypt under British tutelage, it had real political parties and freewheeling newspapers. It was less of a police state.

In Mubarak's Egypt, dissatisfaction knows few outlets other than emigration, religion or terror. I'm betting on a coup.

Translated by William M. Hutchins, ``Cairo Modern'' is published by American University in Cairo Press (248 pages, $19.95, 80 Egyptian pounds).

(Daniel Williams writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

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Last Updated: June 30, 2008 20:10 EDT