Read "The Autumn of the Patriarch" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

If so, you have a sense of Egypt in the closing years of Mubarak's dictatorship.

Equally insightful is the new essay by Adam Shatz in the LRB, where he offers an incisive glimpse of Egypt's unfortunate political blight.

Shatz notes that Obama has only criticized Mubarak implicitly, including in his now well known speech in June 2009 in Cairo. He misses an interesting detail though. The Egyptian president intended to introduce his U.S. counterpart, but this did not happen. Obama was intent not to allow the speech to be a showcase for Mubarak. That is a small glimmer of hope for U.S. policy in Egypt, particularly as the still uncertain succession looms.