David Foster Wallace once wrote that we will produce a far better culture only when we once again treat life’s “plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions . . . with reverence and conviction” — as we once again “endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles”.
In my view, in our century, it’s been Dave Eggers who has carried us the furthest in ditching postmodernism for something better. He’s done so with several books that have been marked by empathy and insight. Not the least of these is Zeitoun — one of my four favorite books by Eggers.
My favorite text analyzing the 2005 hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is the 2006 book The Great Deluge by historian Douglas Brinkley and his team. Brinkley shows us who did what — who did things right, who did heroic things, who failed, who’s to blame.
With his 2009 book Zeitoun, Dave Eggers adds to this analysis the touching and often moving personal story of one man, his friends, and his wife and kids. Right from page one, you know that you’re in good hands — that you’re being guided along by a master storyteller. By page two, you find yourself caring about a house painter and contractor named Zeitoun, a 47-year-old Syrian Muslim who has migrated to New Orleans.
(Zeitoun is his last name but his first name is several syllables long; Eggers makes us feel like Zeitoun is his first name.)
We share the normal daily life experience of Zeitoun, and then the approach of Hurricane Katrina across the Caribbean. Katrina becomes ever-more worrisome, turning into a Category 5 storm with 150 mile-per-hour winds. It heads straight toward New Orleans.
The storm arrives at Zeitoun’s house at 11 p.m. on Sunday, August 28. The power goes out at midnight and the wind picks up soon thereafter. On Tuesday the 30th, Zeitoun looks out the window and sees a sea of water flowing toward his home.
He gets everything of value to the second floor. The water on the first floor rises to three feet, then to six feet. The water is clean the first day or two but gradually fills with oil and gasoline, debris, and garbage, turning into green-grey filth. Hundreds of New Orleans die.
On Wednesday the 31st, Zeitoun heads out in his canoe. He helps rescue a woman in her seventies, then a couple in their seventies. Everywhere he goes, he passes out bottles of water. In the days that follow, each day he feeds dogs that have been left behind in their homes. He carries more people to safety.
Things take a disturbing turn on September 6. Zeitoun is arrested — suspected of stealing $500 in goods from a retail outlet — while he is at his own home. Three of his friends are arrested with him.
A soldier passing by him mutters, “Taliban”. Another soldier tells him and his friend Nasser, “you are al Qaeda”.
He and his friends find themselves in a cage in a makeshift outdoor prison that resembles Guantanamo. A guard with an M-16 is placed in front of them. They sleep on pavement without blankets and under floodlights; the first night he doesn’t sleep at all.
Three days later, he and his Nasser are transferred to Hunt maximum security prison. They encounter two guys who were paid to move furniture thrown into prison because they are suspected of looting. A woman who bought $63.51 in deli food was arrested for stealing it. Chaos reigns. Zeitoun and Nasser are held without charges.
His first week at Hunt, Zeitoun is not let outside even once. Soon he is separated from Nasser and starts spending 23 hours each day alone in his cell.
On Monday the 19th, two suits from the Department of Homeland Security promise him there will be no charges against him. The prosecutor has other ideas, and the judge sets bail at a staggering $75,000. For all his meetings, Zeitoun is handcuffed and his legs are placed in chains.
At last, on Thursday, September 29th, Zeitoun is freed from prison. He’s been held for 23 days. He gets his wallet back, without his cash and credit cards.
Eggers tells this whole month-long story in a beautiful way, and then fills in what happens in Zeitoun’s life over the next three years. It takes time, but Zeitoun begins to dream again. He rebuilds his home, three times better and meeting all of his family’s needs.
“You do your duty”, says Zeitoun, “you do what’s right, and the rest is in God’s hands.”
Eggers leaves us with this image of Zeitoun — a man still happy to be in New Orleans, where he feels more than ever that he belongs, and happy to be free. It’s been days since I read this book (for the first time in 15 years) and I keep visualizing Zeitoun, moving quietly, listening carefully, as he rows his canoe across his city’s floodwaters, feeding dogs, passing out water, and rescuing his trapped elders to safety.