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Saddam City
One morning Mustafa Ali Noman, a teacher in Baghdad, is arrested as he reaches the school gates. For the next fifteen months he witnesses countless scenes of torture as he himself is brutally interrogated, shuffled from prison to prison and barred from contacting his family.
The question of his guilt or innocence clearly irrelevant, Mustafa must fight to retain a grip on reality. ‘How do I know that I am not dreaming this?’ he asks.
Mahmoud Saeed’s devastating novel evokes the works of Kafka, Solzhenitsyn and Elie Wiesel in its account of wanton treatment by Saddam Hussein’s feared secret police. Narrated in a straightforward manner that makes it all the more vivid, Mustafa’s story testifies to the brutal arbitrariness of life under tyranny.
Mahmoud Saeed was born in Mosul, Iraq, in 1938. In 1963 he was imprisoned on political charges for a year, to be followed by three years of suspension from employment. The detentions continued until his sixth and final incarceration in 1980. In 1985 Saeed emigrated to the United Arab Emirates, and since 1999 he has been a political refugee in the US. He has published nine books in Arabic and received many literary awards.
The question of his guilt or innocence clearly irrelevant, Mustafa must fight to retain a grip on reality. ‘How do I know that I am not dreaming this?’ he asks.
Mahmoud Saeed’s devastating novel evokes the works of Kafka, Solzhenitsyn and Elie Wiesel in its account of wanton treatment by Saddam Hussein’s feared secret police. Narrated in a straightforward manner that makes it all the more vivid, Mustafa’s story testifies to the brutal arbitrariness of life under tyranny.
Mahmoud Saeed was born in Mosul, Iraq, in 1938. In 1963 he was imprisoned on political charges for a year, to be followed by three years of suspension from employment. The detentions continued until his sixth and final incarceration in 1980. In 1985 Saeed emigrated to the United Arab Emirates, and since 1999 he has been a political refugee in the US. He has published nine books in Arabic and received many literary awards.
136 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
4 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Mahmoud Saeed
11 books8 followersMahmoud Saeed was an Iraqi-born American novelist.
Born in Mosul, Saeed has written more than twenty novels and short story collections, and hundreds of articles. He started writing short stories at an early age. He wrote an award-winning short story in the Newspaper "Fata Al-Iraq, Newspaper" in 1956. He published a collection of short stories, Port Saeed and other stories, in 1957. In 1963, the government after 1963 coup destroyed his two novel manuscripts one under review, "The Old Case" and "The Strike".
Government censorship prevented his novel Rhythm and Obsession from being published in 1968, and banned his novel Rue Ben Barka, in 1970. Rue Ben Barka was published fifteen years later in Egypt 1985, Jordan 1992/1993, and Beirut in 1997. Authorities banned the publication of any book written by the author from 1963 to 2008. His most important novels after Ben Barka Lane are The Girls of Jacob, The World Through the Angel's Eyes, I am the One Who Saw, and Trilogy of Chicago.
Born in Mosul, Saeed has written more than twenty novels and short story collections, and hundreds of articles. He started writing short stories at an early age. He wrote an award-winning short story in the Newspaper "Fata Al-Iraq, Newspaper" in 1956. He published a collection of short stories, Port Saeed and other stories, in 1957. In 1963, the government after 1963 coup destroyed his two novel manuscripts one under review, "The Old Case" and "The Strike".
Government censorship prevented his novel Rhythm and Obsession from being published in 1968, and banned his novel Rue Ben Barka, in 1970. Rue Ben Barka was published fifteen years later in Egypt 1985, Jordan 1992/1993, and Beirut in 1997. Authorities banned the publication of any book written by the author from 1963 to 2008. His most important novels after Ben Barka Lane are The Girls of Jacob, The World Through the Angel's Eyes, I am the One Who Saw, and Trilogy of Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 17, 2015
To me reading a political and historical novel is far much better than reading other genres. To me reading tenth of history books cannot tell and picture the life during the Ba'ath Party than this novel does. I have heard stories and have been told stories by my grandfather about how cruel the Ba'ath Party were but none of the stories could make me even imagine how evil the Ba'ath Party was. Mr. Saeed's masterpiece Sadaam City (I am the One Who Saw) is without doubt is one of the greatest novels I have ever read. It is also an amazingly written in word choosing. I recommend this novel by Mr. Saeed to be read by anyone who loves to read. Thanks Mr. Saeed for this great novel.
October 22, 2012
Wanted to give this more stars but I can't love a book which deals with such harrowing material. The idea that you can picked up for some small infraction, or reasons which seem absurd. Taken to a place to be interrogated, tortured and shuttled from one prison to another without your family knowing where you are. To dissappear off the face of the earth, and the very people your loved ones would go to for help being responsible.
Unfortunately there are places where this occurs today, but hopefully there also people willing to do something about it.
Unfortunately there are places where this occurs today, but hopefully there also people willing to do something about it.
May 28, 2015
This is truly a harrowing and disheartening depiction of life under Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. Rich detail coming straight from someone who knows what imprisonment is like in Iraq. Quite disturbing and sad, but a also a tale of survival and human endurance.
January 22, 2015
I recommend this book. It's very intense and you can understand what means living in a country under the regime where people are put in jail even when they are not guilty.
December 12, 2019
Not the best exponent of prison fiction I have read. At this point, there is a large volume of fiction by dissidents and ordinary citizens swept up into the security and prison apparatus of authoritarian states (or swept up into the US prison system). Where these texts succeed is in portraying how these exertions fo state power warp human interactions both among those arrested and among those not arrested— the whole of society is imprisoned and demonic.
This text does not do that well. Prisoners always remain friendly and supportive of one another. Arrests are arbitrary but were not due to rampant informing behavior. These features seem implausible and detract from the text.
The text could serve as a useful launching off point to learn more about 1970s Iraq, and the many dissident movements against Saddam’s regime.
This text does not do that well. Prisoners always remain friendly and supportive of one another. Arrests are arbitrary but were not due to rampant informing behavior. These features seem implausible and detract from the text.
The text could serve as a useful launching off point to learn more about 1970s Iraq, and the many dissident movements against Saddam’s regime.
September 15, 2018
Un viaggio nell'oscurità delle prigioni irachene durante gli anni del regime di Saddam Hussein, dove la sopravvivenza è strettamente connessa al sostegno ed alla forza che solo i propri compagni di disavventura possono donare. Cosa succede ad un innocente che per 15 mesi si sposta da una città all'altra, da un centro di detenzione all'altro, senza sapere nulla né delle sue colpe né del suo destino? Questo piccolo romanzo ce lo racconta, partendo dall'esperienza vissuta dallo scrittore. Entrando nelle prigioni si può capire molto di un paese.
October 12, 2014
Enduring Faith in Humanity
While reading Mahmoud Saeed’s novel, Saddam City, the reader is immersed into the bleak, cruel world of torture and suffering during Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical reign over Iraq. This comprehensive account of Mustafa Ali Noman’s time in prison challenges every optimistic belief about humanity and dignity as Noman endures a firsthand experience of the ruthlessness of Saddam and his followers. However, in the narrator’s unbearable physical and emotional agony, an unexpected compassion shines through even during Noman’s most difficult times. Select authority figures contribute to Noman’s moments of relief, but the majority of his support comes from prisoners he meets along his journey.
Although many of the officers mistreat Noman and abuse him constantly, a few stand out as genuinely concerned for him. After his initial exposure to abuse, Noman is transferred by truck to another prison where he witnesses an officer’s kindness for the first time. “[The officer] noticed how Waheed and I were shivering and silently pointed to a kerosene burner… I felt pleasantly warm and safe, and so did not dare question the officer… I did not want to appear to be exploiting his kindness” (43). Even though this is a seemingly small act of sympathy, the officer is risking his career and possibly his life by aiding the prisoners. Noman considers the officer is “simply a good man who had somehow ended up in the wrong line of work” (44). This possibility restores some dwindling faith in humanity because the officer’s motives for being involved in this process may be to save his life and the lives of his family.
The second authority figure to demonstrate consideration for Noman seems perplexed by the lack of charges against him. The warden offers to help him use the phone during his next shift and leaves Noman appreciating his compassion. “I found that I admired him as a champion of humanity, despite his uniform… I was seeing living proof that someone in his position could retain his humanity” (81). Most of the officers abuse their power and dismiss the laws of humanity, but a couple of the officers manage to maintain their concern for other human beings despite their role in the Leader’s dictatorship.
The most convincing displays of kindness occur while Noman is interacting with fellow prisoners. Instead of being solely concentrated on their own problems, the prisoners relate to one another and talk about the details of their lives outside of the prison’s grim walls. On different occasions, one prisoner comforts Noman with stories from his childhood; another prisoner shares his bed with Noman; and a group of prisoners provides a carpet and pillow for Noman when he falls ill.
Noman’s personal encounters with other prisoners also encourage the inherent goodness of humanity. When Waheed parts with Noman, they “embraced and kissed like long-lost friends” (53). Again, when he says good-bye to the Kurds and soldiers, “a flood of goodwill poured in” from their eyes and Noman knew he would never see them again “which made parting more difficult” (104). Noman connects with the other prisoners on a level he would never have been able to achieve so quickly outside of prison. He acknowledges that “this kind of instant trust was nothing short of miraculous in a society where the supposedly free people did not trust even members of their own families” (68). Humanity is truly present in the brief, but meaningful, relationships formed inside of Iraq’s brutal prisons.
Saddam City depicts an unfortunately devastating description of Mustafa Ali Noman’s fifteen-month stay in various prisons throughout Iraq. While it would be easy to give up and accept only the evils demonstrated by the Leader and his party, sincere compassion gives humanity a glimmer of hope through a few of the officers and many of the prisoners. I am inclined to observe this aspect of the novel because I agree with Noman’s transcendental belief “it is better to be bitten fifty times exploring the same crack than lose faith in the humanity of a single human being” (68).
While reading Mahmoud Saeed’s novel, Saddam City, the reader is immersed into the bleak, cruel world of torture and suffering during Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical reign over Iraq. This comprehensive account of Mustafa Ali Noman’s time in prison challenges every optimistic belief about humanity and dignity as Noman endures a firsthand experience of the ruthlessness of Saddam and his followers. However, in the narrator’s unbearable physical and emotional agony, an unexpected compassion shines through even during Noman’s most difficult times. Select authority figures contribute to Noman’s moments of relief, but the majority of his support comes from prisoners he meets along his journey.
Although many of the officers mistreat Noman and abuse him constantly, a few stand out as genuinely concerned for him. After his initial exposure to abuse, Noman is transferred by truck to another prison where he witnesses an officer’s kindness for the first time. “[The officer] noticed how Waheed and I were shivering and silently pointed to a kerosene burner… I felt pleasantly warm and safe, and so did not dare question the officer… I did not want to appear to be exploiting his kindness” (43). Even though this is a seemingly small act of sympathy, the officer is risking his career and possibly his life by aiding the prisoners. Noman considers the officer is “simply a good man who had somehow ended up in the wrong line of work” (44). This possibility restores some dwindling faith in humanity because the officer’s motives for being involved in this process may be to save his life and the lives of his family.
The second authority figure to demonstrate consideration for Noman seems perplexed by the lack of charges against him. The warden offers to help him use the phone during his next shift and leaves Noman appreciating his compassion. “I found that I admired him as a champion of humanity, despite his uniform… I was seeing living proof that someone in his position could retain his humanity” (81). Most of the officers abuse their power and dismiss the laws of humanity, but a couple of the officers manage to maintain their concern for other human beings despite their role in the Leader’s dictatorship.
The most convincing displays of kindness occur while Noman is interacting with fellow prisoners. Instead of being solely concentrated on their own problems, the prisoners relate to one another and talk about the details of their lives outside of the prison’s grim walls. On different occasions, one prisoner comforts Noman with stories from his childhood; another prisoner shares his bed with Noman; and a group of prisoners provides a carpet and pillow for Noman when he falls ill.
Noman’s personal encounters with other prisoners also encourage the inherent goodness of humanity. When Waheed parts with Noman, they “embraced and kissed like long-lost friends” (53). Again, when he says good-bye to the Kurds and soldiers, “a flood of goodwill poured in” from their eyes and Noman knew he would never see them again “which made parting more difficult” (104). Noman connects with the other prisoners on a level he would never have been able to achieve so quickly outside of prison. He acknowledges that “this kind of instant trust was nothing short of miraculous in a society where the supposedly free people did not trust even members of their own families” (68). Humanity is truly present in the brief, but meaningful, relationships formed inside of Iraq’s brutal prisons.
Saddam City depicts an unfortunately devastating description of Mustafa Ali Noman’s fifteen-month stay in various prisons throughout Iraq. While it would be easy to give up and accept only the evils demonstrated by the Leader and his party, sincere compassion gives humanity a glimmer of hope through a few of the officers and many of the prisoners. I am inclined to observe this aspect of the novel because I agree with Noman’s transcendental belief “it is better to be bitten fifty times exploring the same crack than lose faith in the humanity of a single human being” (68).
November 13, 2012
One morning in 1979 Mustafa Ali Noman, a Basra schoolteacher, is arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Saddam’s secret police, yet no reason is given other than the shrugged-off possibility of mistaken identity, and even that’s not enough to stop the juggernaut of institutionalised cruelty that defined Saddam Hussein’s era of paranoid and terrifying power from bearing down on him, similarly inflicted upon maybe hundreds of thousands of others who refused (or neglected) to join the Ba’ath Party. What Mahmoud Saeed does in this brief novel is to tell the story relatively straight without expending unnecessary effort to draw the reader further into the experience, instead offering a simple window on events. In this way the reader doesn’t then feel manipulated in any way into revulsion for the baseless cruelties the narrator is describing – they’re self-evident, while Mustafa alternately descends into further despair or rises to occasional hopes and with such an emotional rollercoaster ride being his alone, the Western reader may feel a little detached from it, somehow separated from the horrors and injustice by the matter-of-fact tone of the narrator. This is not so much an experiential novel as, moreover, a descriptive one, with emphatic shades of both Kafka and Solzhenitsyn informing the true-to-life events, which could well be based on Saeed’s own experiences as an occasional prisoner of Saddam himself. As a document of the abuse of power on a frighteningly extensive and systematic scale that was possibly only surpassed by Stalin or the Khmer Rouge, this realistic fiction is a useful and necessary one.
August 16, 2010
I don’t know how or where I came across this book but I am so glad I did. This book is compelling and is an extraordinary account. Saddam City is one of the most insightful books I have read. It is however at times very difficult to read. This is a book that will truly affect you and tug at your heart.
I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It was written very well and from an insider’s point of view. The author did a wonderful job of making this book informative as well as interesting. This book is truly an eye opener. It artfully and expressively shows the situation in Iraq. I think everyone can learn something from this book.
I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It was written very well and from an insider’s point of view. The author did a wonderful job of making this book informative as well as interesting. This book is truly an eye opener. It artfully and expressively shows the situation in Iraq. I think everyone can learn something from this book.
February 9, 2010
Decent realist novel about Iraqi prisons, probably best for the crazy variety of things they punished people for: stealing, NOT stealing, fighting in the war, not doing so, not having license plates on the front of your car....Nothing particularly exciting about the prose, but having the experience rendered broadly, clearly and without flash is its own service.
February 18, 2014
I was read the novel of Saddam City, it is bright like the sun, strong as iron, it had a clear photographic image, it's style is mixing poetry with music
December 23, 2015
A chilling novel of imprisonment that could be autobiographical. Here we see the brutality of the regime and the warmth & innate goodness of the people entangled in it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews