Zeitoun

This new work of nonfiction by Dave Eggers is absolutely stunning. I am already thinking of ways to work it into my curriculum. I picked it up on Saturday and could not put it down until I finished it. Eggers retells the true and spellbinding story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, an established painter/contractor in New Orleans who remains behind in his beloved city of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The owner of multiple pieces of property around town, he initially stays behind to secure his buildings and the worksites of his clients. However, in the days after the storm he finds a new purpose. He begins taking care of left-behind pets and saving people from their waterlogged homes. Traveling by canoe, he rounds the city on water, avoiding the gangs who are looting. One day he disappears at the hands of the American government. The story of what happens to him rattled me to the core. Eggers's opening epigraph from Cormac McCarthy's The Road is a brilliant piece of foreshadowing: "...in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime..."
This is a story about the best and the worst of a post-9/11 America ruled by fear. I think it is required reading for everyone. Spend the $25 on the hardback copy now; all proceeds go to the Zeitoun Foundation.