The Egyptian
By Mika Waltari
Rating 5/5
Genres : Historical fiction, classics, Ancient Egypt, Akhenaten, Sinuhe, 2021-read, reviewed
This book is a masterpiece!! Just like any masterpiece, it is thorough, has depth and is fantastic. And also like most historical fiction, it is based on few facts and rests itself on much conjecture/imagination of the author. Whoever tells it and however they tell it - its the same story - story of the reign and ruin of Akhenaten,the false prophet and king of Egypt - at the core with only some details altered. But what makes this such a good read is the depth of the story and the complete picture that is conveyed to the reader through the eyes of a head physician to the Pharoah, Sinuhe. I had great respect for him till the end when he gets himself embroiled in the affairs of kings and mixes politics into his former unbiased treatments there by using his potions to kill. He uses his noble profession as a means to deceive and fulfill the desires of devious,ambitious people like Eie(Ay, chief priest and acting ruler, father of Nefertiti) and Hormheb. But his repentance for this is very contrite and I quickly condone him for his helplessness in the situations.
The story is unveiled to the reader by the narrator Sinuhe who recounts his life from the time he is found by his foster parents lying in a reed boat that came sailing down a vast river during the night. His foster parents Senemut and Kipha are not well off but have enough to feed and raise Sinuhe for Senemut is a physician for the poor of Thebes. Aspiring to become a physician like his father, Sinuhe enters the house of life where he gets announced as a priest of first grade before pursuing studies in science and healing. There he meets a fair and handsome woman called Nefernefernefer who becomes his nemesis after he finishes his studies and sets up his own practice. Ensnared by her beauty even though she is much older than him, he casts away all his wealth, belongings and the last possessions of his parents to her so that she would willingly spend time with him. But she just robs him of all his material things and throws him out of her house like a beggar. His parents unable to sustain the loss of all that they own by their son's folly commit suicide. Sinuhe bury them and leaves Egypt to Smyrna,in the company of a slave Kaptah,hoping to never return.
While in Smyrna, he has a chance encounter with Hormheb who commissions him to travel in other surrounding countries and learn what he might of their trades of war and business. So he travels into the lands of Syria, Hittie, Mittani and Babylon with Kaptha. After many adventures he meets a girl whom he calls his "sister" (soul mate) but who being devoted to her God is not interested in him in Babylon. He provides her an escape from the mad Babylon king and escorts her to Crete - the land of her and her God. After her demise there which is unforeseen, Sinuhe and Kaptah through Syria stride back into Egypt to find an altered Egypt. Sinuhe becomes the head physician to the Pharoah and narrates the events as they happen - the attacks of Syria joined with Hitties, Hormheb and Eie joining forces to convince an novice Akhenaten to relinquish weakness and pursue war, their eventual abandonment and murder of thr king, his part in the affairs that follow his death - in a masterful and gripping narration. This is a big book with loads of information and it differs from other books on the subject but its only historical "fiction".
I have read multiple other works on the life and story of Akhenaten and each one of them had a great deal to touch upon and talk about his equal, regent queen Nefertiti but this book barely talks about her. Other than showing her as a woman who strove to obtain what she wanted using devious means and using her beauty for seduction, she plays no major role.
Despite having many other aspects added like Sinuhe's travels and the war after the death of Akhenaten, this book is profoundly about him and his failed reign. Akhenaten was thought a mad man. I smote my head on more than one occasion for the way he related to others and responded to their legit problems. He failed at being a king of a great and wealthy country like Egypt not only because he is an idealist but also because he is incapable of handling anything that's hard to handle. He is shown to get headaches and fall sick when told of the violence his followers rendered in Thebes because of him and his new God, the Sun. He was perhaps a visionary and a true prophet that didn't belong to the time he was born into!
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