Poetic Writing

In chapter twenty six of Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk, Mahfouz's almost poetic language begins to pull the reader in. He starts mixing in long sentences with shorter sentences, and even uses dialogue. This is the first chapter in which the reader can actually feel present in the scene.
In this passage, Mahfouz writes about how simple it is to disrespect the man of the house, and the magnitude of being disrespectful to the man of the house.

Aisha had anticipated what would happen even before the matter was presented to her father. All the same, she had nourished a glimmer of hope in her dreams, like one of us tempted by the hope of winning first prize in a major lottery. At first, influenced by the generosity that comes with victory or happiness and by affection for her unlucky sister, she had been willing to object to getting married. Now her generosity had faded away and her affection had dwindled. Nothing remained but resentment, anger, and despair. There was not a thing she could do about it. This was her father's will and she could not criticize it. All she could do was submit and obey. In fact, she had to be happy and content. To be despondent would be an unforgivable offense. To protest would be a sin her conscience and sense of etiquette could not allow. From the intoxication of bounteous happiness that had elated her night and day she awoke to despair. How gloomy the darkness seemed coming immediately after dazzling light. Thus the pain was not limited to the current darkness but was doubled many times over by regret for the light that had vanished. She asked herself why, since light had been able to shine for a while, it could not keep on shining. Why should it die out? Why had it died out? It was a new regret to add to the others – drawn from memories, the present, and dreams of the future – that sorrow was weaving around her heart. Although she was sunk in thought about this and it dominated her feelings, she wondered again, as though for the first time, whether the light had really gone out. The bitter truth seemed to be bombarding her emotions for the very first time. (159)

What really catches the reader's eye is the detail and the similes and metaphors. The reader could understand that it was a severe action to disrespect the man in the house, but in this passage Mahfouz puts the reader there and the way he delivers this message is like a boxing match. He throws some jabs, short sentences, and the he throws right and left hooks along with uppercuts, long sentences, to know the reader out of his chair. The combinations he is throwing could not be put together any better, and the questions he asks are the knock out blows to the reader's kidneys. When he takes the gloves off, he picks up a T-square and a pencil, and like an architect begins drawing up masterpieces to be created in the reader's imagination. With words like dazzling, intoxication, bombarding, and bounteous, Mahfouz builds skyscrapers with the sharpest edges, and cathedrals with the most detailed cupola.
Mahfouz describes the situation exceptionally well, and if the rest of the novel is like the passage above, the reader will really enjoy reading it.