The Yacoubian Building

I've been reading on this book for months and months. Did I drag the read out too long? Is that why the book did not captivate me as I'd anticipated? The book follows the lives of several people who all have in common one thing: they all live in the same building in Cairo. Though the story intertwines a bit of politics of the time, the book never felt distinctively Egyptian; the lives of the people could just as easily have been the lives of people in New York City or London. Maybe that is why the book disappointed me.