So this second book is basically my review for the first book, but more so. There still isn't great development of female characters, but you'll get to know further the inner lives of two absolute trash people and one okay guy who might not turn out to be an abusive misogynist. There are some broad life, political, or philosophical questions covered that remind me of Russian authors, so it's not all bad. 

The part of my previous review:
At the end of Palace Walk, I'd say it makes a lot of sense to find he was influenced by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Proust, etc. I thought of Anna Karenina while reading. I'd put it in the same classics category as the Russian greats.

An article I read suggested reading his later, nationalistic work or these instead: Ahmed Naji, Iman Mersal, Mohamed Salmawy, Mansoura Ez-Eldin, Youssef Rakha.