Zeitoun (book)


Zeitoun is a nonfiction book written by Dave Eggers and published by McSweeney's in 2009. It tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the Syrian-American owner of a painting and contracting company in New Orleans, Louisiana, who chose to ride out Hurricane Katrina in his Uptown home.
After the hurricane, he traveled the flooded city in a secondhand canoe rescuing neighbors, caring for abandoned pets and distributing fresh water, but was arrested without reason or explanation at one of his rental houses, along with three others, by a mixed group of U.S. Army National Guard soldiers and local police officers. Zeitoun and the others were accused of terrorist activities, presumably because of the large amount of money found in their possession as well as maps of the city and a storage disc, and were detained for 23 days. Zeitoun was refused medical attention and the use of a phone to alert his family. His wife and daughters, who were staying with friends far away from the city, only learned that he had disappeared.

Plot summary

Abdulrahman Zeitoun grew up in Syria. After a few years of apprenticeship in the Syrian port city of Jableh, Zeitoun spent twenty years working at sea as a muscleman, engineer and fisherman. During this time he traveled the world and eventually settled in the United States in 1988. Zeitoun met his wife Kathy, a native of Baton Rouge, with whom he founded their business, Zeitoun Painting Contractors LLC. Kathy converted to Islam.
In late August 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approached the city, Kathy and their four children left New Orleans for Baton Rouge. Zeitoun stayed behind to watch over their home, ongoing job sites and rental properties. Once the storm made landfall, their neighborhood was flooded up to the second floor of most houses. Zeitoun began to explore the city in a secondhand canoe, distributing what supplies he had, ferrying neighbors to higher ground and caring for abandoned dogs.
On September 6, Zeitoun and three companions were arrested at one of Zeitoun's rental houses by a mixed group of U.S. Army National Guardsmen, local police and police from out of state. They were detained in a makeshift jail in a Greyhound bus station -"Camp Greyhound" - for three days before being transferred to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in nearby St. Gabriel, Louisiana. Zeitoun was held at Hunt for 20 more days without trial, but he was given a bond of 75 thousand dollars and read his charges. He was interviewed by officers and later by ICE officials and put in segregated cells.

Writing procedure

Eggers began work on the book in 2006, after meeting Kathy and Abdulrahman through another McSweeney's project called . He worked closely with the Zeitoun family while researching and writing the book, meeting with them multiple times in New Orleans and letting them read six or seven versions of the manuscript. Eggers visited members of the Zeitoun family living in Syria, as well as Abdulrahman's brother Ahmad, who lives in Spain. Eggers said he would not personally make money from the book's publication; any funds from the book would be distributed by the Zeitoun Foundation, a nonprofit set up by Eggers and the Zeitoun family.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying of Eggers that, "He kicked off the decade as the look-at-me stylist behind 2000's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. The fact that Eggers bookended it with this gut-wrenchingly poignant and selfless Katrina story proves that even boy wonders can grow up."
Zeitoun was nominated in the Creative Nonfiction category for the 2010 California Book Awards.

Film conversion

In 2009, an animated film based on the book was announced, set to be directed by Jonathan Demme. However, in May 2014, The Playlist reported that the film was "percolat in development".

Aftermath

The book describes the difficulty Kathy had in the years afterward coping with the stress of the jailing and related events. The couple's relationship deteriorated in subsequent years, and they divorced in 2012. In July 2012, Abdulrahman was arrested for allegedly attacking Kathy on Prytania Street with a tire iron.
In August 2012, he was charged with plotting to have Kathy Zeitoun, her son, and another man murdered. An inmate who was serving time with Zeitoun notified officials that he was asked to participate in this plot.
In July 2013, Zeitoun was tried and found not guilty of charges of attempted first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder. The state's main witness, who had an extensive multi-state criminal record, was found not credible. "An Orleans Parish judge on Monday found Zeitoun, 58, guilty on a felony stalking count that carries a sentence of two to five years in prison. After a daylong bench trial, Criminal District Court Judge Keva Landrum-Johnson found that Zeitoun repeatedly violated a protective order barring him from getting near his ex-wife, Kathy Zeitoun, or properties they still owned together after their divorce."
In 2016, he was convicted of felony stalking his ex-wife, and as of 2018, he has completed his 4-year prison sentence in Louisiana. He has been ordered deported, but remains in the United States as his home country of Syria is unable to process deported persons.