Ahmed Saadawi

Aḥmad Saʻdāwī

After he constructs a corpse from body parts found on the street, Hadi wants the government to prepare a proper burial, but when the corpse goes missing, a series of strange murders occur and Hadi realizes he has created a monster.

A Novel

Frankenstein in Baghdad

Maureen

"There are no innocents who are completely innocent or criminals who are completely criminal."

The quote best sums up Saadawi's masterpiece. I had put off reading this book for a while because I wanted to read Shelley's Frankenstein first. It really helped because he draws from the original to create his own novel's 'monster,' the Whatsitsname. Similar to his predecessor, the monster can't be simply labeled as the bad guy: once again, readers find themselves questioning the innocence of the human race. What makes this novel special, though, is its setting. In the midst of the Iraq War, Saadawi provides a haunting account of how the US forces acted with impunity, thus leaving citizens with no choice but to fight for their survival. The novel emphasizes how the innocent are always caught in the crossfire.

The narrative is just as chaotic as the landscape—Saadawi delivers information in fragments—and readers, just like the monster, are tasked with picking up the pieces in order to make sense of it all. It is commendable how he shows the nature of the war from varying perspectives through his extensive cast—all coming from different walks of life. There is the poor junk dealer who creates the monster and unleashes chaos all around; an old woman waiting for her dead son to come home; a journalist dedicated to the truth yet falls prey to affluence, and an officer desperate to put the city at rest.

The monster, first intent on delivering divine justice, soon finds himself at a crossroads. Though he had sworn to avenge all the victims and only take the body parts of criminals, he later realizes that he can't help but become a murderer himself if he is to survive long enough to complete his mission. But then reality eventually hits: will all this ever end, though? In the end, no matter how innocent a person claims to be— in the face of death—self-preservation is the default action. As raised by the Magician, "who's to say how criminal someone is? ... each of us has a measure of criminality." 

Definitely an eye-opening and powerful read.

honestly brilliant ! using a frankenstein creature to represent the cyclical nature of war and how morality can be complicated in wartime is an incredible take and the adaption works so well. it’s a little slow at points, but the overall story is so important it’s worth the slow parts. 

Clara Gauthier

Fraser Simons

Shook. 
How clever. What a fantastic concept and execution. You do notice a bit of weird translation stuff from time to time, but it is far from a bad translation, thankfully. The narrator does a good job with it as well. 

I have not actually read Frankenstein, and I bet I’d have liked this even more had I. Even without, this is such a compelling and interesting book, so different than the approach of a western author, and subversive in satisfying, sometimes horrific, ways.

Amy Grieve

Going into this I expected a lot more horror and tension based off the synopsis, however instead I was taken on a slow, meandering journey through wartime Baghdad which I didn't mind. Usually slow pacing in books makes it a lot more likely that said book will end up abandoned somewhere never to be picked up again. This time I was able to embrace the pacing of Frankenstein in Baghdad because the narrative structure was so interesting and unexpected. It kept switching between multiple characters with ease keeping each voice distinct enough that I didn't get confused and interesting enough that I never felt bored by them. I also loved the embedded narrative and the way it was incorporated with the story.

I'm not sure how much my enjoyment for this book was based off my familiarity with Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein because it's been years since I attempted to finish it (I made it almost to the end for context). I consider Frankenstein to be one of my least favorite classics, although I do respect it's importance in the literary canon. In my opinion I would recommend this reinvention of the Gothic tale over any other I've had the chance to read so far.

Imane

2.5/5 

Very interesting concept but I found the execution rather poor at times, especially in terms of pacing and of the treatment for the female characters (either she's a motherly saint or she's a thot no in-between no nuance just pure objectification!) which was quite unfortunate and undermined my reading experience. A lot of things are left unsaid or in the subtext but, while I think it's not a deal-breaker, I do believe that the overall message of the book became quite unfocused and blurry because the author wouldn't take even the smallest of stances... It was quite boring to be honest. The novel peaked at chapter 10 but the before and the after are uneven, sometimes a pure snoozefest, sometimes interesting but lacking in execution, which turned the book into the same sort of patchy mess as the decaying corpse of Frankenstein's Creatute. The deadpan humour was a welcome touch though and I do believe that Saadawi captured a haunting portrait of post-U.S. invasion Baghdad and the absurdity and senselessness or war, violence, sectarianism and bureaucracy. I especially loved the characters of Elishva and Whatsitsname (the Frankenstein's Monster figure) and while the ending was left quite open, it didn't stir in me the usual frustration I'd feel for similar cases. All in all a very mixed bag but I'd still recommend it for the themes and the tone of the book.

Shelby Doherty

** spoiler alert **
           Likes:
- Lots of interesting characters (and even though they had unfamiliar names for me, it was always easy to keep track of who is who)
- The ending was interesting - everything tied up super quickly and makes you curious.
- An interesting read where you want to know what is going to happen next
- Good pace, I like that it switches between so many different characters' stories so frequently.
- Really enjoyed the organization/layout of the book. Really easy to read through knowing that you can expect relatively short chapters that are then subdivided into five smaller sections. Easy to pick up and put down without fear of not having enough time to get into it.
- A good look into stories that come from this part of the world and what things may be like as I do not know much at all about Iraq.
- Really enjoyed the depictions of various religious beliefs. I feel we often think of this part of the world as chaotic and religiously extreme. This book depicts Christians, important Jewish architecture, non-believers posing as Muslims. A bit surprising and very good for me to see the religious melting pot that was depicted.
- The only book I have read that is truly about war. While I have read various "war" books none have wrote about the people who are actually living through it - the civilians that are impacted on a day to day basis. Very sad, eye-opening, and hard to believe that people can adjust to this type of existence.

Dislikes:
- While the ending was interesting it is also a bit frustrating as you really still have no idea what is going on - why would Hadi confess to all of Criminal X's crimes, was Siadi telling the truth in his email, is the fortune reading of Mahmoud true and does he become the prime minister, is the figure in the old Orouba Hotel the Whatitsname?
- Not a fan of Nawal's presence in this book. She seemed to be a mysterious character at the beginning but ultimately nothing came out of it, just made the otherwise likeable Mahoumad less likeable as he does not understand boundaries and consent.
- I was confused with the Whatsitsname's cult following and disciples. Who are these people and where do they live. Why are they able to hide from everyday people and the department of Tracking and Pursuit so well?
- At the beginning I thought that Elishva would play a larger overall role in the story. I was slightly disappointed when things started to shift to focus on the people at the magazine and the tracking and pursuit department
- I feel like all of the women characters were pretty unimportant in the overall story.

A very interesting take on the Frankenstein story.

I don't even have much to say about it, other than give it a read.

Deniz Hasanzaadeh 

The book has perfectly pictured the stress and fear of living in war and the ugliness of it. The idea behind the book could make an almost perfect thrilling novel but instead, what we see is like an unfinished story with unfinished characters all over the place. The story itself is a Frankenstein: it’s like it is made up of a few unrelated stories all glued together. The text is repetitive and sometimes boring with unrelated details.

Frankenstein in Baghdad A Novel

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