Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

altmuslim

Home
Muslim
Book "Zeitoun": Surviving the storm

Book "Zeitoun": Surviving the storm

Last updated on: August 3, 2009 at 2:00 am by Guest Contributor

Book "Zeitoun": Surviving the storm 2009-08-03T02:00:15-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Camp Greyhound awaits

Stories sustain us. They comfort us, shock us, give us hope and at their heart, remind us of our shared humanness.

But greatest of all, stories give us access to the intricacies of life we would not otherwise be able to touch, feel or truly understand. We rely on tales and narratives to explain things we are unfamiliar with and to open up experiences we never knew existed.

This is why Dave Eggers new book Zeitoun is so important – it sheds light not only on the Bush administration’s botched response to America’s largest natural disaster, but also on America’s finer moments, and its darker ones as well.

This book is part of a larger effort by Eggers’ publishing house McSweeny’s to publish personal stories using oral history to make some of the greatest contemporary human rights issues more relatable and accessible.

This is exactly what Zeitoun does. This story is the culmination of three years of intense research and hours and hours of in-person, phone and email interviews and conversations. Eggers even traveled to Syria and Spain to meet the Zeitoun family to get their stories.

So here it is: Abdalrahman Zeitoun, known to all as Zeitoun, is a Syrian immigrant who settles in New Orleans and works as a painter. He later marries and, with his wife, Kathy, works his way up and builds a contracting and painting business they both run out of their home. Things are good for the Zeitouns. They are a family devoted to their community and faith, respected in their neighborhood and community as a whole and have a flourishing business because of word-of-mouth recommendations. Their daughters are smart, witty and keen – devoted and doting.

From Egger’s well hued portrait, it is easy to see the Zeitouns represent the best of the American Muslim experience — humbly building up their neighborhood while enjoying the easy kindness of their community, attending local barbeques while not afraid to politely pass on the ribs. It is the Big Easy after all.

The story focuses on the year 2005, which comes and goes as any other. The Zeitouns go through the ups-and-downs that any family encounters trying to balance an ambitious small business with an active personal life.

August rolls around and news reports begin to talk about a hurricane that is sweeping across Florida. But like most hurricanes from the vantage of New Orleans, this one looks rather harmless. Having weathered other storms, Zeitoun passes on the idea of evacuating. Kathy, to be safe, loads the kids and heads with them, and without Zeitoun, to her family’s house in Baton Rouge.

Having moved across Florida toward New Orleans, Katrina is upgraded in the warm waters of the Gulf from a moderately strong storm to a full-fledged category five hurricane prompting government officials to call for evacuations. The city flees the storm, but Zeitoun digs in determined to protect his house and neighborhood. With plenty of food, and living Uptown, far enough from the levees and high enough to not be submerged should the levees break, Zeitoun relies on God and remains confident things will turn out okay. They almost always do.

Hurricane Katrina hits. Winds blow off roofs and storm surges wipe out anything in site of the ocean. Lake Pontchartrain floods. The levees break. FEMA, recently folded into the Dept. of Homeland Security, rolls in armed to the teeth. Having heard stories of rape and mass pillage, police and military are ready for the worst.

As opposed to the reports, though, Zeitoun finds people desperate for help rather than mass marauding gangs.

While those who stuck out the storm finally move out of a surreal post-Apocalyptic underwater city, Zeitoun decides to stay and survey the damage in his neighborhood. After having saved as much family furniture and personal items as possible, he hops into his second-hand aluminum kayak and paddles around. Without the roar of a motor, he hears the faint cries of neighbors – elderly, disabled, those out of water. He rescues them either by himself or with the help of a friend with a boat.

Zeitoun stays in touch with Kathy throughout his time in the city through a working line found at one of the family’s properties. Each day at noon they catch up — Zeitoun talking about the city and Kathy pleading with Zeitoun to finally leave. Zeitoun stays, though. “He had never felt such urgency and purpose. In his first day in his flooded city, he had already assisted in the rescue of five elderly residents. There was a reason, he now knew, that he had remained in the city. He had felt compelled to stay by a power beyond his own reckoning. He was needed.”

But FEMA had other plans. Having seen Zeitoun with a few a friends (including another Muslim immigrant) and a tenant at one of Zeitoun’s rental properties, they suspect the men of stealing and arrest them with inordinate force. The men are then thrown into “Camp Greyhound,” a makeshift Guantánamo style prison camp built at the former Greyhound station. Kathy can’t reach Zeitoun and for weeks doesn’t hear from him. She prepares for the worst.

From here, Eggers moves back and forth between Kathy and Zeitoun, recounting the pain, frustration and fear of each. Kathy is helpless, stuck outside of New Orleans. Zeitoun is helpless too, trapped not only in a ravaged city, but in a Guantánamo style prison camp with no way to reach the outside world and no semblance of order or authority to appeal to for help.

Eggers goes into full detail of the horrific conditions Zeitoun faces and his almost-impossible ordeal — while imprisoned on theft charges, accusations emerge that Zeitoun is part of a terrorist “sleeper cell.” This hits Zeitoun the hardest. Someone trying to save his neighbors is accused without recourse of trying to kill his neighbors. Nothing makes sense.

But Zeitoun is not alone and this new book from Eggers is meant to highlight not only Zeitoun’s story and plight, but also the horrific conditions thousands of tired New Orleans residents faced post-Katrina that were brought on by an incompetent and overly militarized federal administration.

Eggers does a masterful job weaving Zeitoun’s story together to show the multiple dimensions of his experience — Zeitoun’s belief in America’s highest ideals and principles and shock at their violation, his love of his community, his family’s fears and his current efforts to put this sad chapter behind him to focus on the real work at hand — rebuilding his home, New Orleans.

This book and story will go down in history as many narratives do that recount incredibly transformative times in our nation’s history. What is so heartening is that Eggers avoids telling a “Muslim” story and instead tells an important and rich American story through the experience of an exceptional American family that is Muslim, nothing more and nothing less.

Jordan Robinson is Media Associate for the One Nation Foundation. He was formerly the online editor at Islamica Magazine, based in Amman, Jordan, and graduated in 2007 from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

Reviews

Previous Post

July 31, 2009

Interfaith: Concentration camps and comic books

Next Post

August 5, 2009 Literature: A dishonest review about Islam

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What year was the Temple in Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans?

Select your answer to see how you score.

70 AD 33 AD 586 BC 120 AD