Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

I was very excited to read Zeitoun in New Orleans, I think it makes a book even more interesting if you can read it in the location it is set. That may have been a mistake. I can't remember when a book made me so mad. I thought I was going to be reading about one families experience after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans; I didn't expect it to be a feel good story, but I didn't think it could be any worse than what people went through at the Superdome.

Spoiler alert: there is no way to talk about this book without giving away the story. So here is the story. Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a painting contractor in New Orleans. He has lived there for over 10 years after immigrating from Syria. He is happily married and has three kids. He has a successful business and employs crews all over town. People love him. With Katrina bearing down on the city his family evacuates to Baton Rouge, but he elects to stay and protect the house. During the night his house fills with 10 feet of water and he has to move everything he can to the second floor. He spends the next week paddling around New Orleans in a canoe helping people evacuate and checking up on friends houses. His wife calls him every day begging him to leave. After two weeks he is running low on food and decides it might be time to leave. That's when he goes AWOL; his wife does not hear from him for almost a month. She is frantic, but what can she do? New Orleans is closed down and no one can get in.

Finally she gets a call from a good Samaritan to let her know her husband is in jail. He was arrested for looting and has been held in a state prison without being allowed a phone call for a month. Because he is Muslim, Homeland Security suspected him of being a possible terrorist. They don't seem to understand anything about Muslims, as almost every meal he gets has pork and he can not eat it; as a result he looses 30 pounds. The injustices that followed are unbelievable. I had to confirm this was a true story it was so unreal. I don't want to give away all the terrible things that happened, but the list is long. This story made me mad at New Orleans, madder at FEMA and disgusted at how screwed up the government is.

Dave Eggers is a great writer (What is the What) and he does a great job getting into this story. He did an amazing amount of research and confirmed everything with outside sources. He also won the trust of the family and made you feel their pain without ever being over the top or judgemental.