Reality and Fiction

Raina: I think that if I had read the book after I knew about the abuse, I would’ve thought everything in the book was a farce. Thankfully reading it first, I am able to really appreciate everything he did. Spousal abuse is never the right thing to do, ever. Period. Goodbye. The end. But, Zeituon still really did a lot for the people of New Orleans. He extended his gratitude everywhere he could, and he didn’t ask for anything in return. Yes, I do have a different view of Zeitoun himself as a person after knowing everything that he did to Kathy but, I don’t let that effect what he did for his people.

Reader from Chicago: People are complex. I don't see why a subsequent problem -- no matter how reprehensible -- should color the heroism outlined in "Zeitoun," unless you are looking for a handy excuse to dismiss it already. Martin Luther King was a flawed husband too, but only bigots seize upon that as a pretext to reject what he stands for. Abdulrahmen Zeitoun is seen as a human being in Egger's important book, and that remains, despite this sad turn of events.

Michelle: Like said above, I think that there is a lot more to people than what’s on the surface. Everything is not just in black and white, there are a lot more complexities to us than that. I believe that although it is not justified that Zeitoun assaulted his wife, it should not take away from the previous deeds he did. Zeitoun and Kathy were both traumatized people because of the hurricane, and I think it’s fair to say that everyone has their breaking point. Kathy was able to go to doctors and attain help for her anxiety. Whereas, Zeitoun kept to himself. I’m not saying we should overlook this, but maybe we should learn to accept and forgive.

Paul Harris: Regardless of this revelation, the book tells a dramatic story of survival, race relations, and loss of civil liberties in America. Every concerned citizen should read this book.

Rachel Kim: I do not understand the reality behind the book. It was hard for me to comprehend how Zeitoun could hit his wife. The book portrays the Zeitoun’s as a loving, and as close to perfect as reality gets, family. I find myself doubting the content in the book since the love and strength of a family was a large and moving part of the story. The message is strong, clear, and unchanging. The truth for me is opaque.

Isana: I think that families fall apart. It happens, but when you are in the spotlight, you have to take extra precautions in order to make sure that you don’t mess up. We viewed Zeitoun as a hero, then he goes and does something like hit his wife. It makes me question everything that I thought about this so called “hero” .

Marc Dantonio: Well there is your hero Eggers. He is a wife beater just like MANY Muslim men. And you are just another liberal idiot apologist.
What did you THINK? You were propping up this guy as a hero? Well he WAS but just like Rodney King was seen as a victim and now has been in and out of jail for...huh.. guess what? WIFE BEATING, you have this idiot muslim menace whose wife is just property to him that better obey his every command.

H Michael Hawkins: What is the matter with you people? Can't you see he and his family are muslims? It's not a crime for a man to beat the living hell out of his wife if he wants to. She's just another animal in the household. And those children better watch out, too. How dare that daughter to kick her father! I'm sure she's in for a good butt-kicking, just as soon as these christian devils who arrested him get out of his way. Why would anyone bother the police with this nonsense? If she's not behaving the way he thinks she should behave, then it would be OK if he killed her. They're muslims! Don't you get it?

Overview

Zeitoun, the story of survival, courage and Allah. The book accentuates the benevolent deeds of Zeitoun and his family. Yet in reality, there ends up being a side to the Zeitoun family life that was overlooked--a side of abuse. Our group wanted to focus on how after the book was published, portraying the couple as loving and a perfect family, Zeitoun abused his long time wife Kathy.

We wanted to know if the abuse affected how readers portrayed Zeitoun-the book. Although, some of our group members did not enjoy the writing of the book our group agreed with the fact that the it was important to shed light on what happened in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. With our images, we wanted to portray how there can be two sides to every person, how everyone can be stuck with trauma inside their own heads. That trauma can become a burden to some, and you can crack-people crack and that should not take away from what someone has done in their lives

Review

When it comes to Zeitoun, our group was pretty split. The only thing that we seemed to agree on was that this story was powerful. It was filled with moments of true heroism and courage, which we all loved and enjoyed. But, one of the main things that we disagreed on was the amount of background we received on Zeitoun. Rachel and Isana really enjoyed the random facts and stories from Zeituon’s childhood, they both thought that it gave them special insight into who he is as a person. And although they might have been unnecessary, they were nice to read and enjoyable.

On the other hand, I found this type of writing to be chaotic and kind of bipolar in a sense. You would be in the middle of a story and it would go back to fishing, which in my mind really didn’t make much sense. Yes, I understand that Zeitoun has a canoe, and yes, when he was a child he was a skilled fisherman, and yes, those both involve a lot of water, but how do those correlate other than that? Even the dialogue about his brother Ahmed didn’t really connect very well. I know that he was Zeitoun’s hero, and that he brought happiness upon his family. But he didn’t symbolize much more to me than that. Eggers as a writer also seemed to have this tendency to have slow, anticlimactic writing. He would slowly build up to something that really was anticlimactic and disappointing. It didn’t, in my opinion, get me excited to keep reading. I didn’t feel the need to find out what was going to happen next.

In Michelle’s point of view, she found this book to be reasonable and that it has a significant point that should be expressed. However, like myself, she found this book to also be slow, and at times anticlimactic. It’s not that all the flash backs and added details are unnecessary, but at times it seemed as if the writing could have been used in a different form to move the book along in a more interesting and slightly faster pace.

Overall, the group had very different feelings about the book. I guess that’s good for Eggers. He’s created a book that has multiple areas of interest so that even the people who didn’t necessarily love it, still left it feeling like they hadn’t completely wasted their time. I understand why people, such as Isana, liked this book. It’s a story that is filled with family, love, happiness, strength and bravery, and to that I say: GOOD JOB DAVE!

He is just a man. A man trapped within himself.

Prisoners are People Too, Inc.