‘Zeitoun’ is a novel about a man’s journey through Hurricane Katrina, and the measures he goes to attempting to care for his beloved town. ‘Zeitoun’ tells the true story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Muslim man living in New Orleans as the respected and responsible local contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans to care for his neighborhood and properties.
Zeitoun at first dismisses the hurricane as another small storm that does not warrant worry from him or his family. Once the storm hits, Zeitoun still refuses to leave the broken city, despite the pleas of his wife and children. Paddling around in a metal kayak, Zeitoun saves New Orleans residents trapped by the six feet of muddy water that swallowed the city.
Through Zeitoun’s adventures around the now underwater city, Dave Eggars shows the selfless heroism of Zeitoun and the few companions he gathers along the way. Eggars also gives prominence to Zeitoun’s religion, giving the upcoming action of the book importance and the ability to be debated.
Through Zeitoun’s journeys around the city, he dismisses his wife’s claims that he will be hurt by looters or theives, preferring to risk his life to feed dogs he finds stranded in a house.
Zeitoun and his family are devout Muslims, including his wife, Kathy, who converted despite her Christian childhood. Zeitoun’s faith plays an important part in the novel, serving as a guiding force in his decision to stay in New Orleans, and his survival of his troubles later on. Zeitoun believes that he was meant to stay in New Orleans to help all the local residents who are unable to help themselves, telling his wife that God meant for him to stay in the city as a savior. Eggars uses his faith to inspire readers to grow to love Zeitoun and his family, whatever religion they may be. However, Zeitoun’s dedication to his values alone does not save the novel.
Though the use of Zeitoun’s faith is clever, Eggars fails to use the same inspiration in his own writing. At times, the book feels merely descriptive, failing to show enough emotion where connections to characters and insights in Zeitoun’s thoughts could be used as effective ties from the reader to Zeitoun.
Zeitoun’s heroic nature is quite refreshing, and the story is a valuable narrative of Katrina to publicize, but the novel does not do justice to Zeitoun’s true actions; rather, Eggars takes a simplistic approach that makes the primarily riveting biography of Zeitoun into a tedious read that is a bore to finish. For some reason, Eggars favors more monotone writing, expecting that the true story will somehow tell itself in an exciting and interesting way. Though the basic story is obviously moving, Eggars fills the pages with un-exciting storytelling, and fails to bring the basic sequence of events to life.