[Zeitoun] tells the story of a Muslim-American family in New Orleans. The mother and children leave for the store, while the husband stays behind. He and several other men are arrested and spend several months in various impromptu jail situations before being released.

First, the story is very fast moving. The writing is crisp and informative without being dry. This was my first Eggers and I will definitely read more of his work.

What [Zeitoun] manages to avoid is the pitfall of most post-Katrina books about New Orleans which is the forced insertion of every New Orleans personality, location, author’s favorite bar, food, and stereotype. Some of the characters and situations are recognizable to me because they read as real. This seems to be the case with the religious aspects as well, from my limited experience with Muslim-Americans.

The story is hard and tragic and not entirely hopeful. It is the way life is – sometimes good, sometimes bad – and you do what you have to do to get by. Life in south Louisiana has been this way for a long time. Most people can tell you stories of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents struggles. The stories are never disheartening and never heart-warming, but they are solid in a way that everyday life is. Perhaps there is a kind of hope in that. ( )

This is a great book. The story is incredible, since the reality itself of what happend is incredible. Plus, It is perfectly written. ( )

Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a Syrian American living in New Orleans with his wife, Kathy, and his four children. With hard work and determination, he built a successful and well-known business as a painter and a contractor. Always trying to do what is best, he stays behind to protect his home, business, and rental properties while his wife and children flee New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. As the city empties of people and fills up with water, Zeitoun uses an old canoe to explore his deserted neighborhood and help anyone in need. Soon, he is arrested for "looting," and imprisoned first in a Guantanamo Bay-like structure behind a bus and train station (nicknamed Camp Greyhound) and then a maximum security prison outside Baton Rouge for weeks without a phone call or trial. Eggers presents this incredibly powerful and harrowing story in the context of Zeitoun and Kathy's lives. Highly recommended. ( )

In this book, presented in the context of a family biography, Syrian-born Abdulrahman Zeitoun chooses to remain in New Orleans during Katrina to watch over the family property while his wife and children flee the storm. In the quiet desolation after the hurricane he paddles around the flooded streets in a canoe, helping out those in need, feeding abandoned dogs, and contemplating the future of the ravaged city. In an unexpected turn of events he is picked up by law enforcement, ostensibly for looting, and is thrown into a makeshift Gitmo-like chain link prison behind the Amtrak station before being transferred, without being allowed a phone call or a hearing (or even having his rights read to him), to a maximum security prison outside of Baton Rouge. Time passes before his family learns of his fate, and his situation is seemingly made more complicated because he is an Arab in a post-9/11 world. A fascinating story about a man wanting to do right, but caught up in the confusion and government inefficiency that enveloped New Orleans in the days and weeks after Hurricane Katrina. ( )

A man in a second-hand canoe, gliding through the streets of New Orleans. The levees have collapsed and the Crescent City is drowning. The man is Abdulrahman Zeitoun. A Syrian Muslim. He owns his own prosperous business, a painting and contracting outfit and he is happily married, with three children. Katrina abruptly and cruelly changes everything. Here is a passage:

“ Zeitoun woke with the sun and crawled out of his tent. The day was bright, and as far as he could see in any direction the city was underwater. Though every resident of New Orleans imagines great floods, knows that such a thing is possible in a city surrounded by water and ill-conceived levees, the sight, in the light of day, was beyond anything he imagined. He could only think of Judgment Day, of Noah and forty days of rain. And yet it was so quiet, so still. Nothing moved.”

Dave Eggers has told an amazing story of one family’s survival, against both the brutal force of nature and a heartless bureaucratic system. Unforgettable and highly recommended! ( )