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Loading... Zeitoun (2009)by Dave Eggers
  
» 15 more Top Five Books of 2020 (326) Disaster Books (29) Books Read in 2013 (332) Rising water (8) To Read (48) Five star books (1,102) New Orleans (4) Tagged Storms (8) No current Talk conversations about this book.  jj24 | May 27, 2024 |    ) jemisonreads | Jan 22, 2024 | ) ellink | Jan 22, 2024 | ) maryelisa | Jan 16, 2024 |  ) lschiff | Sep 24, 2023 |
 'Zeitoun was sterk', schrijft Dave Eggers in zijn verwoestend mooie boek Zeitoun. 'Hij had nog nooit zo'n gevoel van urgentie en vastberadenheid gehad. (...) Er was een reden, wist hij nu, waarom hij was achtergebleven in de stad. Hij had zich gedwongen gevoeld om te blijven, door een kracht die hij niet kende. Hij was nodig.'De eerste helft van dit zonder opsmuk geschreven non-fictie boek heeft iets van een sprookje. De details die de auteur heeft opgediept, maken dit boek tot een meesterwerk. In de postmoderne romancier Eggers bleek een verslaggever van het zuiverste water schuil te gaan, een observator met een gouden pen. In “Zeitoun,” what Dave Eggers has found in the Katrina mud is the full-fleshed story of a single family, and in telling that story he hits larger targets with more punch than those who have already attacked the thematic and historic giants of this disaster. It’s the stuff of great narrative nonfiction.  "Zeitoun" is a warm, exciting and entirely fresh way of experiencing Hurricane Katrina. Eggers' sympathy for Zeitoun is as plain and real as his style in telling the man's story. He doesn't try to dazzle with heartbreaking pirouettes of staggering prose; he simply lets the surreal and tragic facts speak for themselves. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In the days after the storm, Abdulrahman traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared-- arrested and accused of being an agent of al Qaeda. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)305.8927076335Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Ethnic and national groups ; racism, multiculturalism Other Groups ArabsLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.06)
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Wikipedia in English (3)
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This narrative non-fiction book chronicles the story of Abdul Zeitoun in the days before and weeks after Katrina. Zeitoun is a Syrian immigrant who ultimately settles in New Orleans, becomes an American citizen, and builds a successful painting/property ownership business.
As Katrina prepares to make landfall, Zeitoun's wife and children leave New Orleans but he stays behind. Following the storm, he paddles through his section of city in his canoe -- far away from the chaos and looting in downtown -- and manages to rescue several people who are trapped.
What happens next falls into the category of disbelief. He is arrested inside one of his own properties, though he isn't told why he is being arrested. In the chaos that is post-Katrina New Orleans, he's held in a make-shift jail for weeks, never being told why he was arrested, never allowed a phone call, and never given access to a lawyer. His family is sure he is dead.
Katrina is a dark stain on America's history. On the news we heard plenty about the lawless, roving gangs terrorizing the city after the storm. What we didn't hear is that some of those gangs were under the authority of our own government.
This book should be required reading for anyone interested how a lack of leadership can have far-reaching consequences. (