Lacey Kohlmoos - Quicklet on Dave Eggerss Zeitoun: Cliffnotes-like Summary, Analysis, and Review

Yes, a dark time passed over this land, but now there is something like light.

Zeitoun is both a a scathing condemnation of Bush-era policies and the egregious mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina recovery and a story of one familys undying faith and strength in the face of disaster.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun known simply as Zeitoun is a prosperous Syrian-American in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hits in 2005. Although his wife, Kathy, and their four children evacuate before the storm hits, Zeitoun stays behind to care for their house, business, and rental properties.

When he awakens the day after the hurricane hit to see an ocean of clear blue water covering much of his neighborhood, Zeitoun realizes that the levees have been breached. Instead of immediately seeking evacuation, he stays in the city to help his stranded neighbors. Paddling around in an old canoe, Zeitoun pulls the elderly from the water, delivers food and water, and transports people to evacuation sites.

In return, he is arrested and incarcerated, first in a Guantanamo-like compound and then in a maximum security prison. He is never read his rights. He is never given a phone call. He is called a terrorist and treated like an animal.

While there are a number of books and articles on the market condemning the way that FEMA and the Bush Administration handled the Katrina Disaster, Zeitoun makes the same assertions without becoming too heavy handed.

Author Dave Eggers has made no secret of his anger towards then-President George W. Bush, but he focuses his book simply on telling Zeitouns story. As Eggers writes in the Authors Notes, This book does not attempt to be an all-encompassing book about New Orleans or Hurricane Katrina. It is only an account of one familys experiences before and after the storm.

The response to Zeitoun , which was published in 2009, was overwhelmingly positive. Readers were at once in awe of Zeitouns selflessness and in horror of how the United States Government treated him. Critics praised Eggerss crisp, show-not-tell writing style and well-crafted storytelling. The book became an instant national bestseller and won the American Book Award.

In the end, Zeitouns heart-wrenching story inspired more outrage about the blatant disregard for human rights in post-Katrina New Orleans than a strictly political piece ever could have. By telling the truth simply and elegantly, Eggers ended up writing one of todays most powerful and widely-read condemnations of the Bush Administrations response to Hurricane Katrina.

Be strong, be brave, be true. Endure.

Dave Eggers first appeared in the national spotlight when his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, became a bestseller and got him a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2000. He was 29 years old.

As outlined in his memoir, Eggerss parents both died of cancer within 32 days of each other, l eaving 21-year-old Eggers to raise his eight-year-old brother, Topher . They immediately moved away from their childhood home in Lake Forest, a wealthy suburb outside of Chicago, to Berkeley, CA, where their older sister Beth was attending law school.

In his early years living in the San Francisco Bay Area , Eggers worked as the editor of Salon.com, founded Might magazine, and wrote a comic strip for SF Weekly called Smarter Feller.

After the astounding success of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers published his first novel in 2002 entitled You Shall Know Our Velocity. Other notable works of fiction and non-fiction that followed include What Is The What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006), Zeitoun (2009), and The Wild Things (2009).

But the boy wonders accomplishments do not end with his written work. Eggers is the founder and editor of the highly respected and cutting-edge publishing house, McSweeneys. The bustling little company publishes books, a literary journal called McSweeneys Quarterly, a monthly journal called The Believer , and a quarterly DVD magazine called Wholphin.

Eggers has said in interviews that he has become restless with just writing. A practical man with a conscience, he has balanced his time at the keyboard with extensive humanitarian work. In 1998, he founded 826 Valencia , a writing and tutoring lab for youth based in San Francisco. This model of teaching was so successful that it has expanded to six other cities across the US. He has also helped jump start several other foundations benefiting teachers, the Sudanese, and efforts to rebuild New Orleans.

Dave Eggers lives in San Francisco with his wife, Vendela Vida, and their two children.

Dave Eggers in 2007

Via Wikimedia Commons

What is building, and rebuilding and rebuilding again, but an act of faith?

On August 25, 2005, the balmy New Orleans day starts out like it always does for the Zeitoun family with a constantly ringing phone and the bustle of getting the kids off to school on time. As he pulls out to attend to the needs of his painting contractor business, Abdulrahman Zeitoun is not even thinking of the tropical storm off the coast of Florida. As Kathy savores half an hour of solitude after dropping her four children off at school, the storm is just a tiny nagging worry in the back of her mind.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun was born in Jableh, Syria, but spent most of his early adult life working on ships all over the world before settling down in New Orleans. Finding that his first name was difficult for Americans to pronounce, his new country and adopted home came to know him simply as Zeitoun.

Zeitouns wife, Kathy, was born in Baton Rouge to a large Christian family. After a tough divorce that essentially left her a single mother in her early twenties, she converted to Islam. Zeitoun and Kathy married after years of hesitant courtship. After their marriage, they ran a prosperous contracting business in New Orleans while raising their three daughters and Kathys son from her previous marriage.

As the day wore on, the storm slowly moved toward New Orleans. There are stories of death and lost families. And then the evacuation starts. Kathy decides that it is time to leave. She packs up the children and the dog and heads toward Baton Rouge to stay with her sisters. Despite Kathys pleading, Zeitoun will not even contemplate leaving the city.

Zeitoun fixes leaks in his house as the wind and rain batters the city. The next morning there is some flooding in his neighborhood, but nothing that he feels warranted the mass evacuation.

The next day, however, Zeitoun wakes up to a sea of clear blue water all around him. These are not flood waters. He realizes that the levees have been breached. As the water level rises, Zeitoun moves all of the furniture to the top floor of his house and then climbs into an old canoe, paddling out into the eerie silence of his neighborhood now underwater.

New Orleans flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina and breached levees

Via Paul Morse

As he paddles around, he hears cries of help mostly from the stranded elderly and goes to their rescue. He is invigorated by a new sense of purpose. God must have kept him in New Orleans to help these people.

When Zeitoun paddles over to his rental property on Caliborne, he finds a telephone box above water and calls Kathy. She is beside herself with worry and pleads with her husband to get out of the city. Zeitoun assures her that he is far away from the violence depicted on the news, and tells her that he must stay to help people. He is needed.