Thursday, June 17, 2010

Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

9780307367943
Vintage (paperback)
2010;
originally published 2009, McSweeney's Books
337 pp.


In 2005, Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his wife Kathy, along with their family of three children, lived in New Orleans. That summer, life was going on as normal for the Zeitouns - after years of working for others, Abdulrahman ran a successful contracting and painting business, their little girls were watching and acting out the dvd of Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time, and Kathy acted as stay-at-home mom as well as business partner for her husband. Life was good for this family. 

But as Katrina approached the Gulf, expected to hit New Orleans and hit it hard, Kathy started getting nervous and grabbed the kids, some clothes and the family dog and left to stay with family in Baton Rouge. Her husband decided to stay back and look after the house & his business interests. Kathy wasn't happy about his decision, but Abdulrahman was insistent.  Then came the hurricane, the breaking of the levees, and the aftermath of it all. After the storm was over,  Kathy, unable to get back into the city, was able to keep in sporadic contact with her husband, who managed to convey that he was okay. Day after day she listened to the news, and as the situation deteriorated there, she grew more uneasy. And then one day, Abdulrahman just stopped calling.

The straightforward prose is easy to read and although the book weighs in at about 300 pages, it captures the imagination quickly as the reader gets caught up in the story.  As it goes on, the intensity picks up to where this book is nearly impossible to put down. The story clearly belongs to Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his family, even though it is Dave Eggers who brings their account to life in a professional and journalistic manner, helped by an army of researchers and fact checkers as well as the Zeitoun family itself.


Zeitoun examines the post-hurricane situation through the eyes of a man who lived it and the effects his experiences had on himself and on his family. It's not just an account of a Katrina survivor, nor is it an in-depth  tell-all about the failures of the local, regional, state and  federal government responses. There are plenty of places where those types of accounts are available. Instead, Abdulrahman Zeitoun's story steers the reader to the point of  a head-on collision between post-9/11 policies, racial & religious intolerance, and the efforts of these agencies to regain any measure of control after the most devastating natural disaster in this country.  The book sends the message that something vital to our sense of well-being as American citizens is broken and desperately needs fixing -- and I'm not talking about the levees in New Orleans.

Read this book, then pass it along to someone you know. If you're not shaking your head in disbelief, let's just say I'll be very surprised.

(sorry about the typeface change...I am having trouble moving from MS word to here.)

7 comments:

  1. I'm intrigued! I was wondering if this book was any good. Yours is the only review I've seen. I'll definitely check this out.

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  2. Amazing! I was interested in this one after reading that it won the LA Times award! It sounds better than I expected!

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  3. definitely! You seriously won't be able to put it down.

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  4. Mrs. B: There are actually tons of reviews about this book (for the most part positive). It's just one of those books you have to experience for yourself. Thanks for coming by!

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  5. I have wanted to read this book ever since I saw it discussed on the First Tuesday Book Club. It seems like a really special book and I can't wait to get stuck into it.

    If you are interested in watching some discussion about it, this is what originally inspried me to read it
    http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s2795584.htm

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  6. Becky, thanks so much for the link! I just finished watching it and it was fantastic. Everything they said was so spot on. I wish we had a program like that where I live.

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  7. I am so glad that you liked it! It's a great show. I spend hours entertaining myself watching episodes. Make sure you watch a few. I can personaly recommend that episode in which The Great Gatsby was discussed - I was in the studio audience!

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Say what you will, but at least try to be nice about it.