A review by libvin96
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

4.0

This book was a fascinating page turner and for the first time in awhile, I felt like I didn't want to put a book down until I was done. So clearly Dave Eggers' writing is pretty good. I couldn't give it the full five stars though due to the credible sources I discovered through other reviews showing that this is likely not true and that the "hero" of the story abused his wife and his business committed fraud. Even before I found that out, there were many points in the book where I kind of paused and questioned the credibility. The novel really plays up the good Samaritan vibes in Zeitoun, which is to contrast it with how horribly and unjustly he was treated by the judicial system. But it is admittedly hard to believe that a 47-year-old man who wasn't a strength trainer was just able to MacGyver his way through his flooded neighborhood, rescuing people, casually walking across planks eight feet above putrid water every day to feed dogs he didn't know - all without a hitch or any fear. It does sound like the heroics were exaggerated, and I can definitely see a lot of this story possibly being a fraud as other reviewers have suggested. I still found the book very important in how it discussed the intersections of Katrina, 9/11, womanhood, and Muslim identity. The attention to Camp Greyhound and the disparity between the government's idea of "order" and what the people in the city desperately needed to survive is also incredibly important. The topics and intersections of the book are very well woven, Eggers did some solid writing, but unfortunately the credibility is shot.