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Aug 15, 2009

Imogen rated it:

Will you remind me again why we all hate Dave Eggers so much? I remember reading What Is The What as an act of defiance against the culture at the Strand, where all the book snobs I was working with were way, far too cool to like him. I don't think I looked into the situation very critically though. I mean, at the time I was more interested in reading as confrontation than I was in understanding that confrontation.

But now I'm old! So let's talk about it. Is it because he's popular? More...

17 comments like (113 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Richard rated it:

Rave review in the New York Times.

I'm on Amtrak today, on the first of a three-day trip to New Orleans. I checked five books out of the library just before leaving, then pondered and left two of them at home. This morning I started in on Zeitoun, and this evening I finished it. Maybe I should have brought more than three books? (I also listened to many hours of podcasts when I decided the scenery was nice enough that I didn't want to be reading — it turns out train trips are a great More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2009

Kasa rated it:

As a writer, Dave Eggers has the ability to find the small story within the larger one, as exemplified by his "Voice of Witness" series, out of which arose this book. But no one else could have written this book -- his extraordinary skill as a writer coupled with his deep seated humanity and puckish humor have woven a story of courage and loyalty and love far beyond any other I've read, save for his own "What is the What," my favorite book of 2006. His befriending of his su More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2011

Thomas rated it:

I love Dave Eggers and really want to like this book, but am entirely distracted and increasingly annoyed by the main character. He is constantly described in terms that lead me to believe we are supposed to find him nearly perfect and completely honorable. Unbelievably so, particularly considering this is a work of nonfiction. But Zeitoun's wife and family beg him over and over to leave New Orleans both before and after the hurricane hits, and he stays to paddle around in his canoe. He does sav More...

4 comments like (14 people liked it)

May 17, 2011

Paul rated it:

Definitely compelling -- once we get to the storm. The book starts off pretty slow and unsatisfying. Eggers needs to establish these characters, needs to make us care, but he does so with vast brushstrokes punctuated with only the occasional specific detail for balance. The problem is it's pure exposition and summary. In part I of the book there's virtually no scene. This made it extremely difficult to invest myself completely in the book. While I got an idea of who the Zeitouns were, I never re More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2011

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

Read between 11.30 pm and 4.45 a.m. last night. One big gulp of stinky, corrupt water and the lives that were washed away in it -- and continue to be devastated by injustices codified and rationalized by "The War On Terror" -- the U.S.'s own citizens murdered by ineptitude, bureacracy and a racist, elitist, fear-based world-view that prioritized building prisons over providing food, water and shelter.

Eggers at his very best. What he manages to do here (a lesson learned fr More...

5 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2010

Sally rated it:

Zeitoun is a moving and eye-opening journalistic account of a much-loved and respected Syrian-born small business owner and resident of New Orleans in the days before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Eggers worked closely with Abdulrahman Zeitoun (known simply as "Zeitoun") and his American wife Kathy to faithfully represent Zeitoun's experiences when he remained in New Orleans to supervise his residential properties and business sites following the hurricane.

Some of More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Lee rated it:

Character-driven narrative non-fiction. Once the storm hits, it's consistently top notch, un-put-down-ably compelling and important. Not really just a book about Hurricane Katrina. It's more about how essential human virtues -- courage, endurance, hard work, tolerance, love for and reliance on family -- outweigh superficial religious and regional differences. How character's revealed under pressure. Extreme Bush-Era breakdown of rights we take for granted in the U.S -- there was some disbelief r More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 26, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Aaaaaaaarghhh!! I just can't take Dave Eggers. He has authorial ADD. Stay focused already, dude! Beats me why he's considered such a great writer. Oh well, no accounting for individual tastes, I guess.

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Julie rated it:

I found this ebook at a very reasonable price so I thought I'd give it a shot, having been convinced to give Dave Eggers a try by a reliable source (hello, Matthew!). The subject matter sounded really interesting.

And it WAS interesting - interesting, intriguing, shocking and horrifying, by the end. The first half made me rather annoyed with Zeitoun. He seemed to embody my mental image of someone who would stay in a city in the middle of a Category 5 hurricane: arrogant, convinced tha More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2010

H. rated it:

If Eggers had finished with “The End” on page 299, though I’d have found it rather abrupt and been quick to Google what had happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun in the years since, I would have closed the cover on a truly satisfying 5-star book. The biographical story of Zeitoun builds slowly, as Eggers chooses a calm and patient tone matching the personality of his hero so closely that at first I felt the difficulty in differentiating the narrative perspective from the character was a mistake. Howe More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

Nancy rated it:

This book could have been so much more! Based on the experiences of one family that lived in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, it had the potential to be a really good read. Instead, the seemingly hasty writing and lack of research into social issues relevant to the story made it a one-man's-tale-of-woe, most appropriate for the very young reader. That said, it was a quick pleasant read which might stimulate some reflection about racial profiling, government's limitations in a crisis, cha More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2010

Ruth rated it:

An ordinary man and his ordinary wife and their small happy ordinary children. The man just happened to be of Syrian descent and his wife had converted to the Muslim faith. They ran a very successful painting and contracting business in the city which they loved, New Orleans. The day they got the news that a hurricane was on its way to their city they did the normal preparations and settled in to await the storm. "Zaatoon" as he was called became very busy boarding up his and his c More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2011

Lorenzo rated it:

Praise Dave Eggers!

For who would have ever foretold that the novelist who became famous with a self-hagiography of a book with an impossible title ready to be mangled ("A staggering work of heartbreaking genius" no wait: was it "A heartbreaking work of staggering genius"?) could have become one of the most reliable and worth voices coming from the US?

Guys, this is the same chap who wrote a biography of his unfortunate life when he hit 30 years old and late More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 01, 2010

Julie rated it:

I am still trembling from rage, disbelief, and sadness -having closed the back cover of this book a few minutes ago. Aside from newspaper and magazine articles that I read in the weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina, this is the first long and complete account I have read of a family's experience in the disaster. It is a tremendous and devastating work, told with such forthrightness, simplicity and respect. I highly recommend it to all.

What strikes me as I read several of th More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2011

Mona rated it:

When I first started reading news reports of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, I was reminded of Blindness by Jose Saramago. Though that book concerns a mass epidemic of blindness with unknown causes, not a natural disaster, Saramago explored the moral breakdown of society that results when people – and the law – stop caring about what it means to be human. I remember the reports coming out of New Orleans were eerily similar to the incidents described in Blindness: family separa More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 19, 2010

Kimberly rated it:

I am approximately 2/3 of the way through this book and am thus far underwhelmed. Not by the story - the characters, primarly the eponymous name character, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, are nuanced, courageous individuals who captura the at once deeply personal and universal nature of Katrina and its aftermath. But Eggers' writing is quite dry and the book much longer than it needs to be to tell this story. Eggers intersperses the main narrative with stories of Zeitoun's family and childhood in Syria More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2011

J.M. rated it:

A fascinating and heart-breaking story of an American Muslim from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. While I'd like to say it's hard to believe this couldn't happen here in America, the very real (and very ugly) truth is that it did, and unfortunately the events surrounding 9/11 are more than partly to blame for the way Zeitoun was treated in the aftermath of the storm. The loss of life during Katrina is staggering, and I teared up reading about the animals and people left behind who weren't More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2010

Kokeshi rated it:

Excellent. A brilliant story with fascinating characters - and it's all true. Can it get any better?

This book will be a historic document of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. We will turn to this book in 50 years to learn what it was really like. Eggers did a smashing job. I would recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in surviving adversity. Zeitoun and his family are amazing.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2010

Beth rated it:

This book created a lively discussion in my book club, as it's about the horrible effects of the inept, illegal, and irresponsible response of Homeland Security to Katrina on one family. Many of us couldn't believe that it happened in the USA, and many feared it would happen again. Pretty scary stuff!

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2010

Jeffrey added it

This is a wonderful book, an important book, but I'm finding it impossible to finish because the injustice it chronicles enrages me. It tells the story of an amazing man who chose to stay behind during Hurricane Katrina, saved the lives of his neighbors, and then ended up in a cell because he is Muslim. Zeitoun was eventually freed—I know this. But it still kills me to read what happened to him, his wife, his kids, in our country. I also know, we all know, he is not the only man locked up for be More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Carrie rated it:

Dave Eggers has a reputation for his precise writing and keen observations, so I was a little disappointed to find a few typos within this book. Example: Zeitoun bought his bike for "fory" dollars, and a few sentences which seemed to be missing a pronoun or quotation marks. I think the draft could have benefited from more editing. [return][return]Aside from those small issues, the story is amazing. Eggers was able to paint the relationship between Zeitoun and Kathy and their famil More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2011

Barbara added it

I am simply flabbergasted by the rave reviews of this novel. I've yet to come across even a remotely negative reaction to this book on any online reader site. So, I suppose, I stand alone in thinking that David Eggers' "Zeitoun" is a slow, plodding novel. Worse, I always feel as though I am being manipulated by the author's heavy-hand as to how I should feel about everything that occurs.

For instance, I have no idea why the main character and his family have to be Muslim in order to il More...

3 comments like

Jul 11, 2010

Amanda added it

Snapshot: Zeitounn is a man who decided to stay in New Orleans during Hurrican Katrina, and the book tells a day-by-day account of the events before, during, and after the hurricane that changed him forever. Zeitoun is a business-owner and father, and Dave Eggers goes to great pains to detail his story and his life.

Hook: A nonfiction account of recent American history. The storytelling is straightforward and detailed, and the reader is allowed to get the real inside account of the h More...

0 comments like

Jan 15, 2012

Gwyneth rated it:

Lately, I have found myself naming this book over and over every time someone asks me for a recommendation for a book I've read lately that I really enjoyed. For me, what was so remarkable was the incredible depiction of New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina. I lived in New Orleans at the time, and evacuated from the storm, living with friends and family for two months before moving back to New Orleans, but my husband went back to the city about 10 days after the storm. To be honest, the More...

0 comments like

Dec 30, 2011

Michael rated it:

I like not knowing anything about most of a book before reading it. I mean, I knew it was about New Orleans and Katrina, but I didn't know much else. I also knew that I had mixed emotions about Eggers. I had the preconception that he is pretty much the hipster favorite, especially after McSweeney's and related projects took off, so I had somewhat lowered expectations before picking this up.

Zeitoun was both heartbreaking and inspiring. It's a pretty nuanced view of the fallout from Ka More...

0 comments like

Nov 29, 2011

Maduck831 rated it:

“Downtown, hundreds of people were walking to the Superdome carrying coolers, blankets, suitcases. Zeitoun was surprised. Previous experiments using the stadium as shelter had failed.” (65) “She hadn’t known that Muslims consider the Qur’an the fourth book of God to His messengers, after the Old Testament (referred to as the Tawrat, or the Law), the Pslams (the Zabur), and the New Testament (Injeil).” (71) “The next year, Mohammed entered the famed race between Capri and Naples, a contest that More...

0 comments like

Nov 18, 2011

Kurt rated it:

A true story of injustice in America in the wake of the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina. While I sympathized immensely for Zeitoun and his family, I recognize how such mistakes could be made in such a confusing and tumultuous time. I truly hope that America has learned some lessons since then, but I'm not going to bet on it.

This was really a very good read. I was completely drawn into the story and became very interested in the lives, history, and welfare of the Zeitouns. My More...

0 comments like

Nov 16, 2011

Debbie rated it:

Eggars has a real talent for finding a story and retelling it in a compelling way. Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans have produced many stories that beg to be shared. Zeitoun tells the story of a Syrian paint contractor who stayed in New Orleans through the storm to help his customers and take care of his property. His arrest and treatment were appalling. Eggars is especially good at revealing how poorly our country treats those who are "not like us".

I had read this book befo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Ryan rated it:

***1/2

I was moved by Egger's compassion, humor, and ability to translate the complex history and quirks of a troubled African country for Americans in his wonderful novel What is the What, so when I saw that he'd written a book about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, it went straight into my buy queue. Zeitoun is a real life account of the experiences of a guy-down-the-street, a Syrian-American businessman, who stays behind in a flooded New Orleans and travels around in a canoe, giv More...

0 comments like