Name: Zeitoun
ISBN: 9783125798854

Dave Eggers

Mechthild Hesse

Miriam Bögel

Dave Eggers - Zeitoun : teacher's guide. / by Miriam Bögel and Mechthild Hesse. Teacher's guide

Zeitoun

Midveil

Okay, I finish Zeitoun last night. I liked it. I was a little surprised by it, actually. The only other full-length book that I've read by Eggers is 'You Shall Know Our Velocity.' I wasn't expecting non-fiction. So I'll start with the end of the book, when Zeitoun's wife Kathy expresses surprise over the ordeal that her husband went through could happen in America. Am I showing my cynicism when I say that I wasn't surprised in the least? It's a travesty, and I'm not excusing ANYTHING, but a major city was just destroyed by a hurricane and our criminal justice system is filled with assholes. I'm surprised Zeitoun got out of jail when he did without being tortured and/or sent to Guantanamo Bay. Okay, now I'll be a little critical about the book and feel guilty about it. It's an interesting story that truly does need to be heard, but I don't know if there was really enough here for a book. I think Eggers padded the story with a lot of repetitious, extraneous details. It went beyond providing background and making the reader care about the Zeitouns. It felt like filler. For the first 2/3rds of the book, I was impatient. I didn't know anything about the book when I picked it up, but I wasn't really surprised the direction that it took. Egger's rather heavy handed emphasis on Zeitoun as a model Muslim immigrant who just wanted to save dogs and distribute bottle water made me certain that something bad would happen to him, and I knew it wasn't death. But, I think the part of the book after Zeitoun's arrest was the most effective if not horrific part of the story. I think Eggers' goal with the first part of the book was in trying to emphasize the injustice of it all, that this terrific father/husband/brother/business owner/landlord would be treated in such a way. But isn't it injustice for any innocent man to be treated in such a way? (And why did Zeitoun get out a jail months before his "accomplices" did?) Overall this is a good read and informative about Katrina and the precarious position of Muslims in post 9/11 America.

Zeitoun Dave Eggers - Zeitoun : teacher's guide. / by Miriam Bögel and Mechthild Hesse. Teacher's guide

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