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A review by codyisreading
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
4.0
A sombre and harrowing account of one man's experiences in post-Katrina New Orleans.
When Abdulrahman Zeitoun's family decides to evacuate New Orleans in advance of Hurricane Katrina making landfall, he decides to stay. The son of a fisherman and brother of a world renown Syrian swimmer, Zeitoun feels confident he can ride out the storm.
And for a few days after the hurricane strikes, things aren't so bad. Zeitoun paddles around neighborhoods in his canoe, offering assistance and food to anyone he comes across.
Then the levees break, and so does all hell.
In the course of a week, Zeitoun is detained by authorities in a makeshift prison with no way to contact the outside world. Suspected of terrorism and left to languish, Zeitoun experiences kindness and cruelty in equal measure.
It's easy to armchair quarterback FEMA's response to Katrina. I'd say Eggers does a fairly decent job of not pointing fingers or laying the blame in hindsight. However, what struck me most about the government's disaster response was where its priorities were.
A makeshift jail was constructed in under two days, and yet it took over a week for relief efforts to reach areas of New Orleans. Law enforcement from out of state was flown in quicker than the Red Cross. And that's not to minimize the chaos that occurs in the aftermath of a natural disaster; you'll have people that definitely take advantage of the situation for personal gain. But with reports of theft, rape, and assault in the Superdome (ostensibly set up to be an area of aid), Eggers notes that authorities were prioritizing people they could easily nab. Helicopters were shot down, and yet police detained a septuagenarian woman on the suspicion of looting merely because she had sandwiches she'd packed for herself prior to the storm.
I can understand the plight of law enforcement officers. Many were flown in from out-of-state and only given horror stories about what to expect. That would naturally put anyone on edge. But it was utterly shocking how quickly (and easily) due process was suspended. Courts were non-existent. People disappeared behind institutional red-tape with little care given to rectifying wrongs.
Even something as simple as recovering Zeitoun's wallet from his detention center required an act of extreme humanity. His wallet was returned, but his cash and credit cards were gone (showing that even the order-keepers were not immune to illegality).
Zeitoun was heartbreaking at times and uplifting in others. Definitely worth the read for one person's account of what it was like to live through one of the darkest times in our government's recent history.
When Abdulrahman Zeitoun's family decides to evacuate New Orleans in advance of Hurricane Katrina making landfall, he decides to stay. The son of a fisherman and brother of a world renown Syrian swimmer, Zeitoun feels confident he can ride out the storm.
And for a few days after the hurricane strikes, things aren't so bad. Zeitoun paddles around neighborhoods in his canoe, offering assistance and food to anyone he comes across.
Then the levees break, and so does all hell.
In the course of a week, Zeitoun is detained by authorities in a makeshift prison with no way to contact the outside world. Suspected of terrorism and left to languish, Zeitoun experiences kindness and cruelty in equal measure.
It's easy to armchair quarterback FEMA's response to Katrina. I'd say Eggers does a fairly decent job of not pointing fingers or laying the blame in hindsight. However, what struck me most about the government's disaster response was where its priorities were.
A makeshift jail was constructed in under two days, and yet it took over a week for relief efforts to reach areas of New Orleans. Law enforcement from out of state was flown in quicker than the Red Cross. And that's not to minimize the chaos that occurs in the aftermath of a natural disaster; you'll have people that definitely take advantage of the situation for personal gain. But with reports of theft, rape, and assault in the Superdome (ostensibly set up to be an area of aid), Eggers notes that authorities were prioritizing people they could easily nab. Helicopters were shot down, and yet police detained a septuagenarian woman on the suspicion of looting merely because she had sandwiches she'd packed for herself prior to the storm.
I can understand the plight of law enforcement officers. Many were flown in from out-of-state and only given horror stories about what to expect. That would naturally put anyone on edge. But it was utterly shocking how quickly (and easily) due process was suspended. Courts were non-existent. People disappeared behind institutional red-tape with little care given to rectifying wrongs.
Even something as simple as recovering Zeitoun's wallet from his detention center required an act of extreme humanity. His wallet was returned, but his cash and credit cards were gone (showing that even the order-keepers were not immune to illegality).
Zeitoun was heartbreaking at times and uplifting in others. Definitely worth the read for one person's account of what it was like to live through one of the darkest times in our government's recent history.