Dave Eggers’ new book, Zeitoun.
I’ve been a fan of Eggers for some time now, from his debut novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, to his more recent What is the What, the story of a real-life Sudanese refugee (Valentino Achak Deng). It’s a novel that breaks your heart and lifts you up, all at the same time.
In a lot of ways, it’s similar to Zeitoun, which tells the breaks-your-heart-and-lifts-you-up story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-born American who owns a successful contracting company in New Orleans. While his American-born wife and four children left the city during Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun stays behind, traveling around in a canoe rescuing neighbors, checking on his rental properties and caring for abandoned pets. The last third of the book details what happens when an innocent Zeitoun is arrested by police and military on suspicion of looting, which quickly turns into accusations he is a member of Al Qaeda plotting a terrorist attack on the city.
The book takes you back to where you might have been four years ago, sitting on your couch, blood boiling, wondering how America could have let the mess of post-Hurricane Katrina take place. But while the majority of us sat there and took pity on the folks who had no food and no shelter, most of us had no clue there were people there trying to do the right thing and instead winding up in shackles for it. It’s mind-blowing to think about (and there were parts of the book that literally made my stomach hurt in frustration), but I’ll let the New York Times sum up the book best:
“Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina… Eggers’ tone is pitch-perfect-suspense blended with just enough information to stoke reader outrage and what is likely to be a typical response: How could this happen in America?… It’s the stuff of great narrative nonfiction… Fifty years from now, when people want to know what happened to this once-great city during a shameful episode of our history, they will still be talking about a family named Zeitoun.”
— The New York Times Book Review
And while I’m on my bookish soap box, now would be as good a time as any to invite you all to join GoodReads. It’s a great way to keep track of books you’re reading, books you want to read, and books your friends are reading. I LOVE it! And I think — if you love to read — you might too! So come join and friend me if you want!
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by Gail Werner
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