Book Club Tonight

Tonight we're discussing "Zeitoun" by David Eggers. When we voted on our books for September (it's Julie's month) we chose from three options and "Virgin Suicides" won. But Julie, some months later, asked that we scrub that vote and read this instead. No problem; our book club is a decidedly agreeable group. 

I thought this would be a fictional account of a Middle Eastern man living in New Orleans after Katrina. It's actually a true story. I've cut and paste the following summary from "Baby Got Books", a blog consisting of a group of people who like to talk in a serious way about books and literature. Their blog subtitle is, "Your head will collapse if there's nothing in it." :-)

 Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a New Orleanian by way of his native Syria.  He came to the U.S. largely by chance, and stayed to create a better life for himself.  He is a husband and family man, a religious Muslim, and a successful and respected building contractor.  His Katrina story begins almost exactly the same as everyone else’s, with a decision: should I stay or should I go?  As you might surmise from the cover, Zeitoun chose to stay.

With his family safely out of town, Zeitoun finds himself in one piece after the storm.  He sets off in his canoe to explore the city and look after his interests around town (job sites, rental properties, business office, etc).  Zeitoun saves the lives of several people after the storm and looks after the abandoned pets of neighbors.  He meets up with a few acquaintances, and they work together to survive and help out where they can.

Zeitoun is overcome with a sense of purpose, and he comes to believe that God has placed him in New Orleans to this end: to help others in need.  The rude awakening, and the book’s gripping second half, comes when Zeitoun is arrested while standing in the hallway of a house that he owns for what amounts to “being suspicious”.  What follows is a Dante-esque descent into hell that has to be read to be believed.

I'm not a fan of stories about Katrina. No offense to the folks who lived through that awful experience, it just doesn't interest me that much. Even so, or maybe because I haven't read much on that topic, I enjoyed this book very much. Eggers does a great job developing the story due to an extensive amount of research and a very third person "detached" delivery, almost as if it were fiction. I agree with the blogger's statement that the book really comes alive in the second half as he describes what Abdulrahman goes through when he is arrested. I'm always shocked at these accounts. To think that the nice Billy Bob who helped us get our car out of the ditch with his pick up some years ago is also very capable (and perhaps would enjoy?) of performing acts of terrorism on kind people like Zeitoun, or heaven forbid like my husband, is unfathomable. What is it about some people that they can switch to Gestapo mode? 

Thumbs up.