The End of the Page

Zeitoun: Patriotism Drowns in Tidal Wave of Fear

One man, one canoe, one country’s terrible mistake.

Rating: 10 out of 10

When people begin their journey to earn the title of ‘writer’ or ‘author’ the phrase they hear most is, “Write what you know.” So when Dave Eggers broke onto the literary scene he seemed to personify that motto with his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Surely that title sounds a touch egotistical, but Eggers holds his own and backs it up with a tale of such candor, wit and humility that you can’t help agree with the given moniker.

Since then, Eggers has gone on to expand his wordy sphere and he now has his own publishing house, McSweeney’s, and been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades. Yet the most interesting turn in his career seems to be his switch from talking about his own life story to detailing the lives of others, with the same skill and grace as before. His fictional works are also quite good, but Eggers is really at his finest when describing the trials and tribulations others have gone through, and that is what he tackles in his newest book, Zeitoun.

Zeitoun is the story of a middle-aged Syrian-born man who stays behind to watch his house and business while his family retreats to safety in the face of the oncoming Hurricane Katrina. When he awakens to the true devastation being caused, Abdulrahman Zeitoun does what many people would not, he jumps in his canoe and begins rowing around his neighborhood helping people out of their homes, locating supplies for some, even feeding the local dogs trapped in their homes with no food or escape. While efforts like these should be commended with medals and keys to various cities, Zeitoun is awarded with an arrest by Federal officers, humiliation, degradation and unwarranted terrorist accusations based on nothing more than his race and the overwhelming chaos of the moment. Zeitoun becomes an unwilling disciple to the doctrine of fear and the corruption of unregulated power.

The first half of the story lulls the reader into a comfortable state of being, where we celebrate the fact our country is a place where an immigrant like Zeitoun, a practicing Muslim, could arrive here, find love and build a successful business in one of our greatest cities, New Orleans. His early tales of the building of his family and work force can only be described as a true American triumph due to his sheer hard work and determination. Yet what follows is a horror story filled with not only the worst traits inside everyday people, but the nearly fatal flaws in our system of government and emergency response. The violations of Zeitoun’s civil rights, among many others, are painted with harsh strokes, dripping with the blood of a city washed backwards in time, to a wild west of roving gangs of looters and trigger-happy deputies, their fingers twitching as much from fear as excitement over their next capture.

The scenes that come alive in this book are ones we believed lost to the annals of history and the atrocities committed on our soil in WWII. Yet the phrase we all know so well, but try so very hard to ignore, rears its head once more: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” [George Santayana, The Life of Reason Vol.1 1905]

What we repeated here as a country was the unleashing of unbridled fear. After 9/11 we let fear of another terrorist attack rule every decision we made and we began a systematic shielding of each and every part of our society against these ghosts. We didn’t look at how far back that fear was pushing our country, how many of our own prized rights and privileges were being stripped away in order to ensure something that could never be proven or guaranteed. Eggers truly breaks it down as he says:

This country was not unique. This country was fallible. Mistakes were being made. He was a mistake. In the grand scheme of the country’s blind, grasping fight against threats seen and unseen, there would be mistakes made. Innocents would be suspected. Innocents would be imprisoned.

We chose to turn a blind eye to the rights of those innocents and many still do to this day. The combination of a nationwide catastrophe, like Katrina, and the well-touted doctrine of fear created the ultimate breeding ground for the travesty that Zeitoun was dragged through. We need to hear these stories and we need to remember these stories so we can protect our children and our fellow citizens from ever becoming one of these stories.

The End of the Page Recommendation: There is a reason why this book is a national bestseller and named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Huffington Post and many others. If you feel you can stomach the bitter and harsh truth of some of the things that happened outside the reach of the news cameras during Katrina, pick this up.

To those who have read this already, what did you think? Any other favorites from Dave Eggers?