About this title: When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. Eggers's riveting nonfiction book, three years in the making, explores Zeitoun's roots in Syria, his marriage to Kathy -- an American who converted to Islam -- and their children, and the surreal atmosphere ...
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Description: When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after the storm, he traveled the flooded stree... read more
Description: New. 1934781630 *NEW BOOK! * RETURNS ARE NO PROBLEM! We LOVE happy customers. All our orders sent with tracking information. ALIBRIS. read more
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeney's
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781934781630ISBN:1934781630
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 9781934781630. 1.1 x 8.6 x 6.2 Inches; 342 pages; Carefully packaged and mailed to be the best arrival condition. Thank you for shopping with us. read more
Description: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness the USA's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a unique moment in American history. ISBN10: 024114485X. read more
Description: Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness the USA's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a ... read more
Edition: First edition, first printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeney's
Date Published: 2009
Description: As new and bright decorative cloth edition with crisp bright text throughout. As issued without dustjacket but with wrap band to back cover. A sharp copy all around. read more
Description: PLEASE NOTE that we do not offer expedited shipping. Orders placed with the priority shipping option will automatically be canceled. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness the USA's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a unique moment in ... read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Binding: Pictorial Cover
Publisher: McSweeney Books, San Francisco
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781934781630ISBN:1934781630
Description: As New. No Jacket. Signed by Author Eggers opus to this point in a brilliant career. read more
"This is the first book I've read of Dave Eggers' since A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (which I also loved), so I was surprised to find his narration, which was so internal and spiraling in his memoir, so journalistic and ego-less. The writing is spare and clear and calls no attention to itself, so that instead we readers are more transfixed by the characterization of the Zeitoun family, and of the tragic events that unfolded in the murky wake of Hurricane Katrina. The detailing of racial profiling against Muslims -- gracias a FEMA and the blatantly unconstitutional martial law set up in New Orleans almost immediately when Katrina struck -- is described in terrifying detail, as is the more common and just-as-disturbing distrust that many denizens of our country feel toward those who speak with a Middle-Eastern accent or wear a hijab. The treatment of our own citizens -- arrested and denied even the most basic human rights (and on American soil!) -- brought me to tears. I was very ashamed of the USA reading this book, but Eggers is such a good writer and such a good person -- and his subjects are such good people -- that the end does not linger in anger but instead mirrors the Zeitouns' own hopes that our country continues to strive toward the great ideals it purports to espouse (life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness). Despite our short-comings, despite our frightening history, I was moved. An index at the back of the book recommends several organizations where you can assist those New Orleans citizens still in need. Kudos to Eggers and McSweeneys' for publishing a book of such import, and thank you to the Zeitouns for being the sort of citizens that truly do make the US a great place to live."
"Hardworking Syrian immigrant Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a devout Muslim who has raised himself up by his bootstraps to own his own successful handyman business, which has slowly evolved to not only a solid client base but owning multiple properties in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina hits, his wife Kathy reluctantly heads out of town with the kids but Zeitoun remains behind, shoring up windows and tying down ladders for customers, friends and neighbors. Soon, it's impossible to leave the city, and he moves the valuables up a floor or two. A canoe comes in handy when the levees break and his neighborhood is flooded
In the aftermath, he maintains a noon phone date with his wife, who is afraid for his life as she hears about looting, mayhem, death and property damage on the news. Zeitoun feeds abandoned animals and tries to help those who need it, but no good deed goes unpunished. He is eventually detained and arrested by out of town law enforcement and thrown into a makeshift jail on unfounded charges of terrorism, and can't seem to get answers, or a doctor (he hurts his foot pretty badly) let alone a phone call, a lawyer, or a trial.
This was an unputdownable book - the drama of the storm, the amazing stories of generosity coupled with brutality, the tension of whether Zeitoun would survive his ordeal... it was riveting. Eggers admirably manages to tell this horrific story of racial profiling without getting angry, and provides extensive acknowledgements, but not source notes, at the end. Zeitoun is a fascinating look at an untold piece of the more-than-natural disaster of Katrina."
"Over the years, I've become more and more impressed with Dave Eggers--not so much with the books he has written (until now) but with the way he's promoted writing--putting out beautiful, visually sensual, texts through McSweeneys (the kind of books you want to own just so you can put your hands on them) and with his work with 826 Valencia, a writing and tutoring center that started in San Francisco but now has chapters nationwide.
Reading Zeitoun upped my respect for Eggers as a writer. In this book, he tells the true story of Abduhlrahman Zeitoun (called Zeitoun by most people) and his wife Kathy, who at the time of Hurricaine Katrina were running a highly respected construction business in New Orleans. As the storm warnings start to build, Kathy decides to take their four children to a sister's house in Baton Rouge, but Zeitoun stays behind because he wants to keep an eye on the office and the projects in process.
What happens next is just one story out of many from the Katrina vortex but Eggers not only balances the perspectives of Zeitoun, who feels almost a relgious calling as he glides though the post-Katrina streets of New Orleans in a canoe and lends a hand to others, with that of Kathy, who grows more and more fearful about her husband's safety. Mixed into this narrative is a lot of fascinating backstory--about Zeitoun's childhood and family in Syria as well as his path to the United States and also about Kathy's eventual decision to embrace the Muslim faith, much to her large, working-class (and Christian) family's confusion.
The horrors, the humanity, and the surreal logic of the post-Katrina response are there in full array--I felt the same burning anger in my stomach as I did while watcing Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke. This book will inspire you and break your heart at the same time. In true Egger's fashion, the book itself is beautiful and the profits go to the creation of The Zeitoun Foundation, whose purpose is "to aid in the rebuilding of New Orleans and to promote respect for human rights in the United States and around the world."
So don't check this one out of the library. Buy it. Read it in one day (like I did). And think about what you can do to make a positive difference in the world."
"Another heartbreaking work of staggering genius from the author who brought us A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Not for the faint of heart, this book details the trials of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American, and his family before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans. Though it was clear from news coverage at the time that our government failed the people of New Orleans in its inept response to the disaster, it was not necessarily as clear just how deep and disgraceful this failure was. Through Zeitoun's story--which, without giving too much away, includes his arrest and detention as a suspected member of Al Qaeda and/or the Taliban--Eggers reveals the atrocious, misguided, ignorant, and racist response that the Bush administration had to Katrina. Perhaps the most frightening revelation in this book: significant resources were dedicated to the construction and operation of a temporary prison for suspected looters and/or terrorists just steps away from the Superdome, where tens of thousands of others were simply neglected. This is an incredibly powerful book, if you can stomach it."
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