Zeitoun

True account about the aftermath of Hurricane.

Ok I've read afterwards that Zeitoun was not a good hearted man as he is described here in the book and that he appeared in court for attempt of murdering his wife ( of which he was not convicted). And I've read that his work as a business man was not as good and as honest as described in this book, so if this is true it's a bit sad reading as a non-fiction story. That's the reason I give 4 and not 5 stars.On the other hand what is 100% is the disaster that happened in New Orleans and th shameful way America and his government handled this. Reading this took me back to a corrupt 3th world country, realizing in shock that no, this happened in one of the most civilized and richest countries in the world. How can government fail in such a disgraceful way? Let's hope that they learnt about it and after the Houston and Florida storms recently luckily we did not hear such reports yet, besides some loothing but I guess extreme conditions can bring the best but also the worst in human.A book that makes you think, that's for sure...

I've read a couple of other books by this author and admired his intense focus on his subject. He never seems to shy away from a challenge so the New Orleans floods seemed to be a fit.The story is written in the style of a novel with plenty of backstory and lots of detail about the characters. It is also written in the third person so the reader gets to be the observer to everything.At the beginning there are some great positives about immigrants and muslims in the US - moving to make a better life and giving the society around them. This is modern day America though and we also see racism in many forms encountered by the main people.I had to keep reminding myself that this is a factual account - not even a fictionalised version of true events - this actually happened.The account is staggering. We all heard about Katrina on the news but this book personalises what happened and makes it real. Almost immediately, Zeitoun is having to make life or death decisions and realises that his survival is a priority when everything else is removed.Some details about Zeitoun's life would be too unlikely to be included in a novel (the story of his famous brother as an example) so, their inclusion here, makes the whole book as genuine as it can be.The peril ramps up as the water rises and I could see that I was only a third of the way through the story so lots more horrible things to happen. The small glimmer of hope is that he is telling the story for Dave Eggers to write so Zeitoun must survive (mustn't he??).Most of the time we are seeing the story from the view of Zeitoun and his wife - it's when the story splits that the book gets even more difficult to read.Using this account of a national disaster, the book tells a huge amount about the state of the US society - positives and negatives. There are extremes of both but it is heart warming that the kindness of the majority in the middle comes across strongly.

This excellent work of journalism based on research and interviews with the principal real-life protagonist gave me a different view of the plight of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to the one I had before I read it, which was based on news reports in the British media, mainly BBC. I was spared the crasser reports from some US networks (eg Fox) which I found in the book. It is described as "a nonfiction novel", a phrase which seems appropriate, because it is more than just an extended news feature. We find out about Abdulrahman Zeitoun's early life in Syria, his adventures as a seaman, his marriage to Kathy (from a Christian background), his life in a moderate Muslim family - and the way he stayed behind in the flooded city to rescue people in an aluminium canoe, which is more than can be said for the incompetent authorities, who arrested him on a feeble false looting charge and put him in an improvised concentration camp in the city bus station. It could be dangerous if you were a dark-skinned man with Middle Eastern origins up against redneck National Guardsmen soon after 9/11. Most readers will have felt very sympathetic towards him and will have been horrified by the brutal way he was treated. I have read recent stories about how he is now divorced from Kathy and how he has again been tangled up with the law, so perhaps Dave Eggers should write a Part Two.

I purchased this book for My Kindle so that I was able to complete the A - Z Book Challenge 2012 that I have participated in this year. A title I doubt I would have ever considered if it had not been for the Challenge as it is non-fiction not a genre I normally review. However it was a good choice fascinating although disturbing.The process behind this book started in 2005 shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. A team of volunteers from Voice of Witness, a series of books that use oral history to illuminate human rights crises collected testimonies from residents and former residents of New Orleans about their lives before after and during Hurricane Katrina. An interview with Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun was included in a publication called Voices From The Storm and it was something about their story that struck home with Dave Eggers and he decided to turn it into a stand alone book. Zeitoun is the result of nearly three years of interviews and research, it makes a compelling account of the terrible experiences of this family.When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, decided to sit out the storm rather than evacuate to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after the storm, he travelled the flooded streets in his canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. What an earth happened to him? It is difficult to believe but sadly true!All the events related in the book are seen through the eyes of the Zeitouns, so it must be remembered that this is how they recollect events. The process of bringing this story to print must at times have been a very painful experience for them. If you read this you will be reading the story of a very courageous family who have a tremendous amount of faith.

This may possibly be the last time I read a Dave Eggers book, for while the story he tells is an interesting one that needs to be told, the way he tells it is patronising, simplistic and exhibits a world view where blacks are very black and whites and bright white. While his charity and community work away from his writing is all very commendable, I read books because I want to be presented with a nuanced with of the world. There are a few challenging issues in Zeitoun, but they could be spelled out over the course of a feature story in a newspaper, not over 350 pages. The book drags, because of the simple narration and dichotomous world view - a charge also levelled at Eggers' latest book, "Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?"There are so many books in the world, and so many that uncover injustices in a more involved and investigative way than this, that I can't see myself ever going back to Eggers, despite enjoying his first two books.