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Atta
Ours is a century of fear. Governments and mass media bombard us with words and images: desert radicals, "rogue states," jihadists, WMDs, existential enemies of freedom. We labor beneath myths that neither address nor describe the present situation, monstrous deceptions produced by a sound bite society. There is no reckoning of actuality, no understanding of the individual lives that inaugurated this echo chamber.
In the summer of 1999, Mohamed Atta defended a master's thesis that critiqued the introduction of Western-style skyscrapers in the Middle East and called for the return of the -Islamic-Oriental city.- Using this as a departure point, Jarett Kobek's novel ATTA offers a fictionalized psychedelic biography of Mohamed Atta that circles around a simple question: what if 9/11 was as much a matter of architectural criticism as religious terrorism? Following the development of a socially awkward boy into one of history's great villains, Kobek demonstrates the need for a new understanding of global terrorism. Joined in this volume by a second work, -The Whitman of Tikrit---a radical reimagining of Saddam Hussein's last day before capture--ATTA is a brutal, relentless, and ultimately fearless corrective to ten years of propaganda and pandering.
In the summer of 1999, Mohamed Atta defended a master's thesis that critiqued the introduction of Western-style skyscrapers in the Middle East and called for the return of the -Islamic-Oriental city.- Using this as a departure point, Jarett Kobek's novel ATTA offers a fictionalized psychedelic biography of Mohamed Atta that circles around a simple question: what if 9/11 was as much a matter of architectural criticism as religious terrorism? Following the development of a socially awkward boy into one of history's great villains, Kobek demonstrates the need for a new understanding of global terrorism. Joined in this volume by a second work, -The Whitman of Tikrit---a radical reimagining of Saddam Hussein's last day before capture--ATTA is a brutal, relentless, and ultimately fearless corrective to ten years of propaganda and pandering.
200 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
October 28, 2012
This charts those innocent pre-9/11 days when ordering a novel about a terrorist wouldn't get you flagged by the NSA.
But more to the point: This is the best historical novel I've read in ages. It skillfully evokes the many contradictions of Mohammed Atta - paying particular attention to his architecture studies, embedding that training into his world view. The story is gripping and provocative without ever seeming sensationalist, alternating chapters between Atta's own occasionally bitter voice and an objective recounting of the events leading up to 9/11.
The narrative is so well researched and convincing throughout that I often forgot when Kobeck was inventing scenes that were well outside any sort of public record. For instance, the volleyball games with Osama Bin Laden would've seemed far-fetched and farcical in other hands, but here it's utterly believable and revelatory in unexpected ways.
"Atta" is especially impressive for how it deftly sidesteps the supposed dividing lines between literature and politics. Highly recommended.
But more to the point: This is the best historical novel I've read in ages. It skillfully evokes the many contradictions of Mohammed Atta - paying particular attention to his architecture studies, embedding that training into his world view. The story is gripping and provocative without ever seeming sensationalist, alternating chapters between Atta's own occasionally bitter voice and an objective recounting of the events leading up to 9/11.
The narrative is so well researched and convincing throughout that I often forgot when Kobeck was inventing scenes that were well outside any sort of public record. For instance, the volleyball games with Osama Bin Laden would've seemed far-fetched and farcical in other hands, but here it's utterly believable and revelatory in unexpected ways.
"Atta" is especially impressive for how it deftly sidesteps the supposed dividing lines between literature and politics. Highly recommended.
September 16, 2019
A novella and short story. ATTA [4/5], Whitman of Tikrit [3/5].
We tend to mythologise our villians aswell as our heros. This very much does the opposite. A fictional biography of one of the 911 highjackers, regardless of how far from the truth it might be it certainly left me feeling like the reality must have been as messy.
It approaches the subject with neither reverence nor sarcasm and shows a sad, complicated, venal, dillusional and above all ordinary group of people, who are also terrorists.
On occasions when you see how other people view our protagonist it reminded me of Taxi Driver or something similar, this guy has zero social skills.
Overall if your hesitant to read because of the subject matter you really don't need to be. Lot of different ideas and aspects to this but the one thing it does well above all others is reducing some villians to the very ordinary and messy humans they undoubtably were.
And the book throws in some Saddam Hussein too in the short story.
We tend to mythologise our villians aswell as our heros. This very much does the opposite. A fictional biography of one of the 911 highjackers, regardless of how far from the truth it might be it certainly left me feeling like the reality must have been as messy.
It approaches the subject with neither reverence nor sarcasm and shows a sad, complicated, venal, dillusional and above all ordinary group of people, who are also terrorists.
On occasions when you see how other people view our protagonist it reminded me of Taxi Driver or something similar, this guy has zero social skills.
Overall if your hesitant to read because of the subject matter you really don't need to be. Lot of different ideas and aspects to this but the one thing it does well above all others is reducing some villians to the very ordinary and messy humans they undoubtably were.
And the book throws in some Saddam Hussein too in the short story.
April 21, 2013
In the end I think Jarett Kobek's "Atta" is the only book one really needs to read regarding September 11. It's a tragic and sad tale. Atta was one of the key figures who was the "soldier" or "Terrorist" who flew the plane into one of the towers on that clear September day. Which I hope by the way, over time, that date becomes just a date and not a memory of the incident, that opened up Pandora's Box of 21st Century tragedies - Iraq War, etc and etc.
Atta, by all means a close-minded fellow, is repulsed and fascinated by American culture. For me, the most interesting part of this narrative is his thoughts on Walt Disney and one of his films. He saw it with his fellow thugs, and was totally repulsed by what he saw on the screen. When they started to have articles in the media about Atta, I remember the Disney fixation and how that sort of became a focus of sorts. Kobek did an excellent job in getting into Atta's head, especially his thoughts on architecture as well as popular media and the Urban Landscape, both his home in Egypt as well as in the U.S./Europe. It's amazing how suspenseful the book is, especially we know the narrative already. This handsomely designed little book is an important work, yet depressing. But one has to go through the pain (at times) to get to a truth of some sort. Essential book!
Atta, by all means a close-minded fellow, is repulsed and fascinated by American culture. For me, the most interesting part of this narrative is his thoughts on Walt Disney and one of his films. He saw it with his fellow thugs, and was totally repulsed by what he saw on the screen. When they started to have articles in the media about Atta, I remember the Disney fixation and how that sort of became a focus of sorts. Kobek did an excellent job in getting into Atta's head, especially his thoughts on architecture as well as popular media and the Urban Landscape, both his home in Egypt as well as in the U.S./Europe. It's amazing how suspenseful the book is, especially we know the narrative already. This handsomely designed little book is an important work, yet depressing. But one has to go through the pain (at times) to get to a truth of some sort. Essential book!
May 26, 2023
"So that the reading was like a book only to the extent that the book is regarded as a porous, unstable, and provisional platform for the dissemination of information. We tend to think of books as interiorized devices, linked to solitude and self-enclosed spaces; and they deliver something, like meaning, up to the reader. But I’m not so interested in knowledge in that teleological sense; I’m more interested in the dissipation of knowledge, unfocused attention, and generic receptiveness. It would be nice if a book could reduce the amount of knowledge in the air. I’m equally interested in the public and communal architecture of reading practices as they intersect with individuals and park benches, the subway and the seminar room. Why can’t a book be more like a perfume? Or a door? Or the year after we graduated from college? A perfume is a communications medium just as literature is. Moods, furniture, restaurants, and books are communications mediums. What is it that Warhol said, 'I think the right hormones can make Chanel No. 5 smell very butch.' -- Tan Lin rhizome.org
Kobek made concrete speak. From the depths of Iraqi thought. From the depths of Disney and 𝘜𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 retellings. From Atta, the architect who piled the plane into the Twin Towers on September 11th. The buildings speak as much as land does to relay history. Each rock speaks for the human conscience. And for the American context, Kobek uses humor and concise prose that swirls and swirls to a dizzying effect. Perhaps the buzzing is everywhere. I too stopped to listen to the buildings and there was a voice in contemporary formations. Sloped and sullen, broken and rebuilt, lost and found in our contemporary voice that struggles to find footing in our positions of things and thoughts.
This book is a sound, a solid, in historical fiction, a perfume of how ideology formulates and resolves through trauma and history to countdown to an unspeakable terror that we all know, one with mixed facts and fictions, an oblivion from text to life, from fiction to nonfiction, that crushes the very essence and idiocracy of autofiction.
Kobek made concrete speak. From the depths of Iraqi thought. From the depths of Disney and 𝘜𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 retellings. From Atta, the architect who piled the plane into the Twin Towers on September 11th. The buildings speak as much as land does to relay history. Each rock speaks for the human conscience. And for the American context, Kobek uses humor and concise prose that swirls and swirls to a dizzying effect. Perhaps the buzzing is everywhere. I too stopped to listen to the buildings and there was a voice in contemporary formations. Sloped and sullen, broken and rebuilt, lost and found in our contemporary voice that struggles to find footing in our positions of things and thoughts.
This book is a sound, a solid, in historical fiction, a perfume of how ideology formulates and resolves through trauma and history to countdown to an unspeakable terror that we all know, one with mixed facts and fictions, an oblivion from text to life, from fiction to nonfiction, that crushes the very essence and idiocracy of autofiction.
March 31, 2022
An incredible portrait of the architect of one of the cells that flew a plane into one of the towers on 9/11. The voice crafted for this is as successful for me as Lolita. Not with the goal of seducing the reader to the point-of-view of Atta, but more the believable, organic nature of the voice being entirely embodied in every level of the prose work. You absolutely revile the man, who rails against those less puritanical than him even as he refuses to interrogate an inch of himself. Yet even in so doing, there is massive conflict present. Always bubbling and psychically driving his thoughts, emotions, and actions.
It’s actually an important work, I feel. When people do these things the gut reaction is to paint them as insane and dehumanize them and contrast them to us completely. But actually our creating a caricature of people who do these things only allows for us to continually misunderstand and often demonize entire groups which we ascribe the perpetrators of such actions. Similarly lacking the inward reflection and critical input from others, as well as the fostering of empathy everyone dearly, dearly needs to be and perceive and negotiate humanity.
At a systemic level, Atta here does actually perceive real issues and real harm coming from western society. And he’s not wrong about them. But that anger turning to fostered, active hatred coupled with shame that could easily be likened to those of western rearing and socialization is similarly present. He does see, at times, that God is Love. But can’t internalize it because the rhetoric of his turned masculinity can’t justify that.
So he does as everyone does: build their own prison. Play architect to their own pain and, in turn, filter everything through that skewed lens.
Again, just as in Lolita, the reader should come away from this reflecting on their own lens. Where does our own motivated thinking take us? Where are we going? What are we doing? Harm? Or good?
It’s actually an important work, I feel. When people do these things the gut reaction is to paint them as insane and dehumanize them and contrast them to us completely. But actually our creating a caricature of people who do these things only allows for us to continually misunderstand and often demonize entire groups which we ascribe the perpetrators of such actions. Similarly lacking the inward reflection and critical input from others, as well as the fostering of empathy everyone dearly, dearly needs to be and perceive and negotiate humanity.
At a systemic level, Atta here does actually perceive real issues and real harm coming from western society. And he’s not wrong about them. But that anger turning to fostered, active hatred coupled with shame that could easily be likened to those of western rearing and socialization is similarly present. He does see, at times, that God is Love. But can’t internalize it because the rhetoric of his turned masculinity can’t justify that.
So he does as everyone does: build their own prison. Play architect to their own pain and, in turn, filter everything through that skewed lens.
Again, just as in Lolita, the reader should come away from this reflecting on their own lens. Where does our own motivated thinking take us? Where are we going? What are we doing? Harm? Or good?
October 24, 2011
How does one rate such a book?
ATTA is Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders among the 9/11 hijackers. This novel is a fictionalized account of him, half in third person and half in first. For several days I could not begin the book, afraid of what it might ask of me. Is it an anti-American screed, some author ripping the US asunder through the mouth of this violent man? Or will it only present him as a mindless murderer, the novel itself yet one more coded message to this complacent land that, no, you need not reflect upon the treatment you give the rest of the world. Yet I believe in art, literary art, and is not this fear, this possible danger precisely what is missing from so much of what is now written and published? I wanted to be buffeted, I wanted to wrestle. This book brought that about, and must thus be viewed a success.
The short story included to fill out the last pages is well worth reading, too. It is entitled The Whitman of Tikrit, and allows us to learn of Saddam Hussein's (fictional? real? I don't even want to know) deep and abiding passion for the poetry of Walt Whitman.
I know nothing about Kobek. I do not know his politics, but I believe we should not flee from literary works merely because of the politics of the writer. I recommend this book for its bravery, its poetry, and how it unsettled me.
----------------------
One other word: This book also does very well one of the things that makes literature so valuable, and that is that it makes the world strange. To be placed in this mindset, to be shifted about by it, to be shown the western world in such a way, to be shown buildings and architecture and patterns of behavior from this outside viewpoint is all important, and very well done in this book.
ATTA is Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders among the 9/11 hijackers. This novel is a fictionalized account of him, half in third person and half in first. For several days I could not begin the book, afraid of what it might ask of me. Is it an anti-American screed, some author ripping the US asunder through the mouth of this violent man? Or will it only present him as a mindless murderer, the novel itself yet one more coded message to this complacent land that, no, you need not reflect upon the treatment you give the rest of the world. Yet I believe in art, literary art, and is not this fear, this possible danger precisely what is missing from so much of what is now written and published? I wanted to be buffeted, I wanted to wrestle. This book brought that about, and must thus be viewed a success.
The short story included to fill out the last pages is well worth reading, too. It is entitled The Whitman of Tikrit, and allows us to learn of Saddam Hussein's (fictional? real? I don't even want to know) deep and abiding passion for the poetry of Walt Whitman.
I know nothing about Kobek. I do not know his politics, but I believe we should not flee from literary works merely because of the politics of the writer. I recommend this book for its bravery, its poetry, and how it unsettled me.
----------------------
One other word: This book also does very well one of the things that makes literature so valuable, and that is that it makes the world strange. To be placed in this mindset, to be shifted about by it, to be shown the western world in such a way, to be shown buildings and architecture and patterns of behavior from this outside viewpoint is all important, and very well done in this book.
December 12, 2017
Booktube video review https://youtu.be/CHGhsrw_blY
February 22, 2021
tfw you end up on a government list for giving this book five stars
November 3, 2013
Ideologues driven my notions of religious, political, or philosophical "purity" are fundamentally idiots, and Kobek's portrait of Mohamed Atta--the pilot of one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center--is spot on in creating a believable picture of a man intolerant, hypocritical, and humorless, a man seemingly without human warmth, except in theory. This is a funny book, and when it's not funny, Atta is pathetic, although, as it turns out, dangerously pathetic. Atta, predictably, detests all aspects of Western, non-Islamic life, except for Disney cartoons and made slasher films, which hold a perverse fascination for him. An an apartment he shares with other orthodox Muslims, one roommate, Marwan, is surprised to find Atta watching the film "Silent Night, Deadly Night":
"[Marwan] is silent for 3 or 4 minutes. 'Brother,' he says, 'how can you watch this decadent trash?'
"'This film,' says Atta, 'has secret meanings. It is a message to the viewer who possesses understanding. A person needs certain knowledge to find the message.'
"'Ya Allah,' says Marwan, "What possible message can you see in this, brother? I won't believe it.'
"Atta sighs. . . 'Brother,' says Atta. 'Trust me. I have seen this film before. Twice.'
"'Well?' asks Marwan. 'Go ahead, brother. Tell me.'
"'The film,' says Atta, 'takes the Crusader false idol of Santa Claus and reveals his true nature, not only as an imaginary construct built to deceive children, but also explores the fundamental link of Christian culture with violence. The plot is simple. A boy watches as a man dressed like Santa Claus kills his mother. Nineteen years later, the boy inherits this dread mantle and himself dresses like Santa Claus. He beings a reign of terror, posing as the benevolent mythological figure while chopping apart human bodies. Some murders are done with a singular Christmas theme. He hangs a man with Christmas light, he asks his victims if they are naughty or nice. He leaves wrapped presents for his chosen. Do you see the idea, brother?'
"'No,' says Marwan. 'What's the point?'
"'Brother,' says Atta, 'The film functions on two metaphorical levels The first is more obvious. It is a critique of Western commodity culture. Imagine a world in which Christmas has nothing to do with Isa but rather the flow of green American dollars. We live in this world. The film takes this idea to its extreme, employing the icon of commercialization. Santa Claus murdering literally is only a poetic demonstration of the reality. Secondly, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a metaphor for the manner in which the West treats the Islamic world. Amreeka smiles like a friend, a trusted acquaintance, and then, after your back is turned, strikes you from behind. This film is very subversive, brother. It demolishes the myth of Santa Claus and uses the slasher genre to provide an explicit, angry critique of American foreign policy.'
"' Brother,' says Marwan. 'You can find the secret meaning of anything.'" . . .
That Kobek has also implanted in this passage a parody of facile Marxist criticism is also a nice touch.
The short story that follows, "The Whitman of Tikrit," is about Saddam Hussein during his last days--delusional, pathetic, and funny.
I've been buying books published by Semiotext[e] since around 1990. This is the first one I've read that was deliberately funny. I'm surprised, and disappointed, that Kobek apparently was unable to find a bigger publishing house to print this novel--"Atta" deserves a bigger audience than I think the Semiotext[e] publicity budget (probably an oxymoron) can provide. I hope word of mouth helps get word out about this book and its author. I'm strongly encouraged by this book that Kobek has lasting talent, and I look forward to more by him.
"[Marwan] is silent for 3 or 4 minutes. 'Brother,' he says, 'how can you watch this decadent trash?'
"'This film,' says Atta, 'has secret meanings. It is a message to the viewer who possesses understanding. A person needs certain knowledge to find the message.'
"'Ya Allah,' says Marwan, "What possible message can you see in this, brother? I won't believe it.'
"Atta sighs. . . 'Brother,' says Atta. 'Trust me. I have seen this film before. Twice.'
"'Well?' asks Marwan. 'Go ahead, brother. Tell me.'
"'The film,' says Atta, 'takes the Crusader false idol of Santa Claus and reveals his true nature, not only as an imaginary construct built to deceive children, but also explores the fundamental link of Christian culture with violence. The plot is simple. A boy watches as a man dressed like Santa Claus kills his mother. Nineteen years later, the boy inherits this dread mantle and himself dresses like Santa Claus. He beings a reign of terror, posing as the benevolent mythological figure while chopping apart human bodies. Some murders are done with a singular Christmas theme. He hangs a man with Christmas light, he asks his victims if they are naughty or nice. He leaves wrapped presents for his chosen. Do you see the idea, brother?'
"'No,' says Marwan. 'What's the point?'
"'Brother,' says Atta, 'The film functions on two metaphorical levels The first is more obvious. It is a critique of Western commodity culture. Imagine a world in which Christmas has nothing to do with Isa but rather the flow of green American dollars. We live in this world. The film takes this idea to its extreme, employing the icon of commercialization. Santa Claus murdering literally is only a poetic demonstration of the reality. Secondly, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is a metaphor for the manner in which the West treats the Islamic world. Amreeka smiles like a friend, a trusted acquaintance, and then, after your back is turned, strikes you from behind. This film is very subversive, brother. It demolishes the myth of Santa Claus and uses the slasher genre to provide an explicit, angry critique of American foreign policy.'
"' Brother,' says Marwan. 'You can find the secret meaning of anything.'" . . .
That Kobek has also implanted in this passage a parody of facile Marxist criticism is also a nice touch.
The short story that follows, "The Whitman of Tikrit," is about Saddam Hussein during his last days--delusional, pathetic, and funny.
I've been buying books published by Semiotext[e] since around 1990. This is the first one I've read that was deliberately funny. I'm surprised, and disappointed, that Kobek apparently was unable to find a bigger publishing house to print this novel--"Atta" deserves a bigger audience than I think the Semiotext[e] publicity budget (probably an oxymoron) can provide. I hope word of mouth helps get word out about this book and its author. I'm strongly encouraged by this book that Kobek has lasting talent, and I look forward to more by him.
April 13, 2021
Mohammed Atta, the infamous ringleader of the 9/11 terrorist plot that led to the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, provides the subject matter of Jarett Kobek's short work of fiction.
In many ways, Atta's infamy is both the main selling point, as well as the main weak point of Kobek's novel. For those old enough at the time to recollect the aftermath of 9/11 and the subsequent media reports, Atta's photograph, showing a tight-lipped and stone faced young Middle Eastern man, is an image that is burnt into their memory. The activities of the terrorist cell that he led were exhaustively reported. All this adds up to a challenging task for any potential author. In essence, the challenge is 'what can I add to that which is already known?' Any such author has two main means of doing so - either revealing something novel about Atta's psyche, or using prose style to provide an aesthetic which so impresses the reader, that the events themselves prove to be of secondary importance.
I got the impression that Kobek employed both of these strategies, at varying intervals throughout the book. As far as the prose goes, it's at times almost dazzling, particularly when Kobek writes of Atta's disdain for the consumerism that is ever present in the US. These narrow vignettes almost leap off the page. The multiple Z's towards the end of the book serve little purpose other than to distract though, and for those segments of prose that do impress, they are just that - segments, that often prove all too brief.
But the events that Kobek relates through the eyes and mind of Atta also fall short. There isn't much in the way of anything new and original. And the leap from first person to third person narrative styles detracts from any attempt to construct a solid psychological portrait of Atta himself. Those sections that deal with Atta's religious ideology are challenging for anyone that doesn't already have at least a vague understanding of where it may have come from - a question that remains unanswered through the books short length.
Overall, this never really hits the sweet spot that a solid psychological portrait should but does have brief flourishes of poetic brilliance as far as the prose is concerned.
In many ways, Atta's infamy is both the main selling point, as well as the main weak point of Kobek's novel. For those old enough at the time to recollect the aftermath of 9/11 and the subsequent media reports, Atta's photograph, showing a tight-lipped and stone faced young Middle Eastern man, is an image that is burnt into their memory. The activities of the terrorist cell that he led were exhaustively reported. All this adds up to a challenging task for any potential author. In essence, the challenge is 'what can I add to that which is already known?' Any such author has two main means of doing so - either revealing something novel about Atta's psyche, or using prose style to provide an aesthetic which so impresses the reader, that the events themselves prove to be of secondary importance.
I got the impression that Kobek employed both of these strategies, at varying intervals throughout the book. As far as the prose goes, it's at times almost dazzling, particularly when Kobek writes of Atta's disdain for the consumerism that is ever present in the US. These narrow vignettes almost leap off the page. The multiple Z's towards the end of the book serve little purpose other than to distract though, and for those segments of prose that do impress, they are just that - segments, that often prove all too brief.
But the events that Kobek relates through the eyes and mind of Atta also fall short. There isn't much in the way of anything new and original. And the leap from first person to third person narrative styles detracts from any attempt to construct a solid psychological portrait of Atta himself. Those sections that deal with Atta's religious ideology are challenging for anyone that doesn't already have at least a vague understanding of where it may have come from - a question that remains unanswered through the books short length.
Overall, this never really hits the sweet spot that a solid psychological portrait should but does have brief flourishes of poetic brilliance as far as the prose is concerned.
April 20, 2016
This is a largely stunning debut. Kobek provides a meticulously researched fictional portrait of one of the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks, a man whose suicidal fanaticism helped to usher in our current, seemingly perpetual geo-political era of jihadi terror.
Kobek bounces between sections of interior monologue tracing Atta's history and an external voice focused on the days leading up to the attack. At it's strongest, 'Atta' offers a searing portrait of hatred. Mohammed Atta's perspective is as sad and sickifying as anything in fiction. To paraphrase William H. Gass: he hates, a lot, hard.
At the same time, Kobek does an excellent job of showing the colossal personal insecurities which can underlie such a hopelessly fanatical worldview. An encounter with a libidinous Palestinian woman, a bizzaro trip to Disney world (?!), a staggering description of a Hajj pilgrimage which ends in a crisis of faith... Kobek makes these vectors of personal doubt cosmically frightening, and tangible. This is an excellent book about a supremely awful human being. Highly recommended, even though strangers at the park will give you some funny looks when you try and explain what it's about.
Kobek bounces between sections of interior monologue tracing Atta's history and an external voice focused on the days leading up to the attack. At it's strongest, 'Atta' offers a searing portrait of hatred. Mohammed Atta's perspective is as sad and sickifying as anything in fiction. To paraphrase William H. Gass: he hates, a lot, hard.
At the same time, Kobek does an excellent job of showing the colossal personal insecurities which can underlie such a hopelessly fanatical worldview. An encounter with a libidinous Palestinian woman, a bizzaro trip to Disney world (?!), a staggering description of a Hajj pilgrimage which ends in a crisis of faith... Kobek makes these vectors of personal doubt cosmically frightening, and tangible. This is an excellent book about a supremely awful human being. Highly recommended, even though strangers at the park will give you some funny looks when you try and explain what it's about.
May 5, 2013
A great political allegory. Jarett Kobek is like the male Fanny Howe. A gifted, haunting, and important parabolist of contemporary America.
July 21, 2023
Nobody has ever written about 9/11 the way Jarett Kobek has written about it in the novel 'Atta.'
After 'Atta,' there may be no need ever to read another novel dealing with the historical events leading up to Mohamed Atta's last flight in life, during which he and several other hijackers commandeered American Airlines Flight 11 and piloted it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. However, of the events leading up to that moment at a quarter to nine in the morning on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 'Atta' is required reading for any person who lived through the events, felt their way through the events, or is looking to frame the events long after the fact in some human continuum.
In the course of 163 pages, after which there comes a two-part thematic coda, Kobek works a kind of sorcery, a summoning, bringing Mohamed Atta into a focus that the historical record cannot. Never sentimentalizing the person, never decoupling his story from the course upon which Atta set himself, it nonetheless unlocks the interior of the dead face that one finds with any Google or a visit to the Mohamed Atta page on Wikipedia.
Tracing his journey from Egypt to Europe and his restless, relentless, all-consuming inside/outside combat with the West through the lens of his ultimate judgment upon its morals — and its excesses — this is also no caricature of an extremist. The disgust, anger, and rage that Atta experiences, to whatever extreme ideological and psychological machinery has ginned it up within his short, mostly hateful lifetime, are alive on Kobek's page. The author knows not to write this element of the novel as a seduction. It is, instead, a horrifying revelation.
Passages also remind us how the unvarnished exterior view of the United States that pervades the narrative outside U.S. borders— often to differing extents in completely justifiable ways — serve as props and pillars for the kind of discourse that metastasized from cafe tables to the cockpits of Boeing 767s.
One example. In the novel's first third, Gore has won the popular vote, but the 2000 election is locked in legal chains. Atta's comrade suggests the Democrat would be better for Muslims. Here is where we understand the Atta mindset, a proxy for a disdain that cannot be confined to his brutal worldview alone: "When the time is right, all Americans are Crusaders. They do as they please. That is their nature. They will make war whenever the thought of blood enflames their desires."
On the other side of the interior development Kobek brings to the monster Atta, there is blindness, a cyclopean sightlessness that has been wrought by the very spear of extremism the novel's main character seeks to throw.
For a moment, when Atta meets Osama bin Laden for the first time near the end of the novel, blindness might be penetrated momentarily, but the horror of the moment is that we know it cannot be sufficient. Bin Laden, blind in one eye himself, forces his new team of future hijackers to play game after game of volleyball, a favorite pastime. Atta is terrible at the sport, and his side suffers loss after loss. "I pledge loyalty to bin Laden, but I hate bin Laden," he thinks, realizing that the physically towering Al Qaeda icon is essentially Western, changed by his time in the West. Atta's colleague Jarrah has fared better, making certain to play on bin Laden's side of the net. "Didn't you notice that most brothers we have met have been small?" Jarrah chides Atta. "So of course he says volleyball is Allah's most favored sport. A certain kind of man always picks the games he is sure to win. Why do you think I ran to his side?"
Temporary perception and consciousness can change nothing. Atta continues. Atta persists. Perhaps the only glimmer of material changes comes at his first sight of real blood up close, standing outside the cockpit, his Saudi colleagues virtually forcing him to stab the plane's pilot to death. The sensations and the revulsion that for a few seconds wash over him suggest the only moments of person-to-person empathy the character has experienced, the only moment in which human existence is coming into him and mingling with his own rather than bouncing off his flesh, bruising and offending and motivating him to despise. "As he twitches into death, we are more important to each other than any other people."
It is not an orgasm of any kind, it turns out. The mind of Atta, which we know now by these last few pages of Kobek's monumental book, perverts experience. No love emerges from murder in 'Atta.’ Instead, the dark face of righteousness and the power of delivering judgment replace its titular character's thinking, and he takes his spot at the controls and completes the story we know too well.
'Atta' is the most important novel written since 9/11. Despite its grim subject and ceaseless inflection of right and wrong, good and evil, it must also be among the most empathetic novels ever written. You will not learn to like, love or forgive Mohamed Atta, but you will learn something from this character as Kobek writes him back into life for just under two hundred searing pages.
After 'Atta,' there may be no need ever to read another novel dealing with the historical events leading up to Mohamed Atta's last flight in life, during which he and several other hijackers commandeered American Airlines Flight 11 and piloted it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. However, of the events leading up to that moment at a quarter to nine in the morning on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 'Atta' is required reading for any person who lived through the events, felt their way through the events, or is looking to frame the events long after the fact in some human continuum.
In the course of 163 pages, after which there comes a two-part thematic coda, Kobek works a kind of sorcery, a summoning, bringing Mohamed Atta into a focus that the historical record cannot. Never sentimentalizing the person, never decoupling his story from the course upon which Atta set himself, it nonetheless unlocks the interior of the dead face that one finds with any Google or a visit to the Mohamed Atta page on Wikipedia.
Tracing his journey from Egypt to Europe and his restless, relentless, all-consuming inside/outside combat with the West through the lens of his ultimate judgment upon its morals — and its excesses — this is also no caricature of an extremist. The disgust, anger, and rage that Atta experiences, to whatever extreme ideological and psychological machinery has ginned it up within his short, mostly hateful lifetime, are alive on Kobek's page. The author knows not to write this element of the novel as a seduction. It is, instead, a horrifying revelation.
Passages also remind us how the unvarnished exterior view of the United States that pervades the narrative outside U.S. borders— often to differing extents in completely justifiable ways — serve as props and pillars for the kind of discourse that metastasized from cafe tables to the cockpits of Boeing 767s.
One example. In the novel's first third, Gore has won the popular vote, but the 2000 election is locked in legal chains. Atta's comrade suggests the Democrat would be better for Muslims. Here is where we understand the Atta mindset, a proxy for a disdain that cannot be confined to his brutal worldview alone: "When the time is right, all Americans are Crusaders. They do as they please. That is their nature. They will make war whenever the thought of blood enflames their desires."
On the other side of the interior development Kobek brings to the monster Atta, there is blindness, a cyclopean sightlessness that has been wrought by the very spear of extremism the novel's main character seeks to throw.
For a moment, when Atta meets Osama bin Laden for the first time near the end of the novel, blindness might be penetrated momentarily, but the horror of the moment is that we know it cannot be sufficient. Bin Laden, blind in one eye himself, forces his new team of future hijackers to play game after game of volleyball, a favorite pastime. Atta is terrible at the sport, and his side suffers loss after loss. "I pledge loyalty to bin Laden, but I hate bin Laden," he thinks, realizing that the physically towering Al Qaeda icon is essentially Western, changed by his time in the West. Atta's colleague Jarrah has fared better, making certain to play on bin Laden's side of the net. "Didn't you notice that most brothers we have met have been small?" Jarrah chides Atta. "So of course he says volleyball is Allah's most favored sport. A certain kind of man always picks the games he is sure to win. Why do you think I ran to his side?"
Temporary perception and consciousness can change nothing. Atta continues. Atta persists. Perhaps the only glimmer of material changes comes at his first sight of real blood up close, standing outside the cockpit, his Saudi colleagues virtually forcing him to stab the plane's pilot to death. The sensations and the revulsion that for a few seconds wash over him suggest the only moments of person-to-person empathy the character has experienced, the only moment in which human existence is coming into him and mingling with his own rather than bouncing off his flesh, bruising and offending and motivating him to despise. "As he twitches into death, we are more important to each other than any other people."
It is not an orgasm of any kind, it turns out. The mind of Atta, which we know now by these last few pages of Kobek's monumental book, perverts experience. No love emerges from murder in 'Atta.’ Instead, the dark face of righteousness and the power of delivering judgment replace its titular character's thinking, and he takes his spot at the controls and completes the story we know too well.
'Atta' is the most important novel written since 9/11. Despite its grim subject and ceaseless inflection of right and wrong, good and evil, it must also be among the most empathetic novels ever written. You will not learn to like, love or forgive Mohamed Atta, but you will learn something from this character as Kobek writes him back into life for just under two hundred searing pages.
July 11, 2024
it does a great of making Atta multidimensional and all the aspects of his personality Kobek choses to emphasize are interesting choices. his passion for architecture, desperation for true spiritual fulfillment, reactionary disgust, and freudian parental issues all create a psychology that stays compelling throughout the whole novel. I found myself legitimately moved by the tragedy of a couple passages, something that I wasn't expecting to happen until the end. Mostly though I just think there's a lot of scenes that will stick with me, Atta's Hajj spliced with him bawling though a conversation with his father, his funhouse mirror trip through the legacy and architecture of Walt Disney, his last conversation with Jarrah, his sensitivity to the unreliable voice of god, and the sobering viciousness of the final chapter.
it's also incredibly funny to make Bin Laden super into volleyball because he's 6'5 and always wins
it's also incredibly funny to make Bin Laden super into volleyball because he's 6'5 and always wins
December 23, 2024
"Now, brothers," says bin Laden. "One thing that we always insist upon is the importance of physical fitness. How do you think we beat the Soviets at Jaji? Come, brothers, let's have no dissent. Walk outside with me and we will play the sport most favored by Allah."
"What sport is that?" I ask.
"Volleyball, brother," says Osama bin Laden.
—
Looking for a read that contrasts the western decadence of the Disney show “TailSpin” with the visceral austerity of Wahhabism? This is the one.
About to stop taking book recs from a certain friend.
"What sport is that?" I ask.
"Volleyball, brother," says Osama bin Laden.
—
Looking for a read that contrasts the western decadence of the Disney show “TailSpin” with the visceral austerity of Wahhabism? This is the one.
About to stop taking book recs from a certain friend.
September 3, 2023
While it’s true that to read is to live a thousand lives, this is one POV that I didn’t think I would cross. A confronting yet equally compelling depiction that axiomatically confirms ALL tales have two sides.
November 13, 2017
I've done it. I've read the final book for my Terrorism & Modern Literature module. Each book I've read looks at terrorism in different time periods, and for the last novel it was only right I looked at the 9/11 attacks.
I cannot rely on my own words to summarise this for you. They would not do the novel justice. So, instead, I have taken the most relevant and important sentences out of the ridiculously long Goodreads summary: In the summer of 1999, Mohamed Atta defended a master's thesis that critiqued the introduction of Western-style skyscrapers in the Middle East and called for the return of the -Islamic-Oriental city. The novel's main concern is asking the question: what if 9/11 was as much a matter of architectural criticism as religious terrorism?
To be honest, I didn't hate this (surprisingly, considering I've hated all the others). It was interesting and very well written. I think the main reason I liked this was because it was (sort of) contemporary. I was five when this happened, so I have absolutely no recollection of the attack. But I do remember it was all people talked about for years, so I felt like I could connect to this narrative through that.
The reason I'm rating this down so much is because the first 2/3 of the novel was quite boring. It was interesting to get one of the attacker's backstory, but I didn't really care for it all that much? Why would I want to read and occasionally feel sympathy or understanding to a man who committed such an atrocious attack? I can't help but feel like this book removes some of the blame from the attackers, placing it on different people, capitalism, etc. etc. etc.
Essentially, the only reason I am giving it 2 stars is for the final third of the novel. Despite this being the most horrific part, it was interestingly depicted. It was brutal, violent and graphic, but it showed Kobek's writing abilities. I was drawn in by this part of the narrative, but I feel like I shouldn't have been? I'm not too sure, to be honest, I'm so conflicted right now. It was good, but raised a lot of issues for me, too.
But to summarise this review, I will refer back to the Goodreads summary: "ATTA is a brutal, relentless, and ultimately fearless corrective to ten years of propaganda and pandering".
I cannot rely on my own words to summarise this for you. They would not do the novel justice. So, instead, I have taken the most relevant and important sentences out of the ridiculously long Goodreads summary: In the summer of 1999, Mohamed Atta defended a master's thesis that critiqued the introduction of Western-style skyscrapers in the Middle East and called for the return of the -Islamic-Oriental city. The novel's main concern is asking the question: what if 9/11 was as much a matter of architectural criticism as religious terrorism?
To be honest, I didn't hate this (surprisingly, considering I've hated all the others). It was interesting and very well written. I think the main reason I liked this was because it was (sort of) contemporary. I was five when this happened, so I have absolutely no recollection of the attack. But I do remember it was all people talked about for years, so I felt like I could connect to this narrative through that.
The reason I'm rating this down so much is because the first 2/3 of the novel was quite boring. It was interesting to get one of the attacker's backstory, but I didn't really care for it all that much? Why would I want to read and occasionally feel sympathy or understanding to a man who committed such an atrocious attack? I can't help but feel like this book removes some of the blame from the attackers, placing it on different people, capitalism, etc. etc. etc.
Essentially, the only reason I am giving it 2 stars is for the final third of the novel. Despite this being the most horrific part, it was interestingly depicted. It was brutal, violent and graphic, but it showed Kobek's writing abilities. I was drawn in by this part of the narrative, but I feel like I shouldn't have been? I'm not too sure, to be honest, I'm so conflicted right now. It was good, but raised a lot of issues for me, too.
But to summarise this review, I will refer back to the Goodreads summary: "ATTA is a brutal, relentless, and ultimately fearless corrective to ten years of propaganda and pandering".
February 8, 2019
A profoundly difficult task is to respect the humanity of a man like Mohammed Atta, a person who killed so many in one of the most horrific, infamous days in American (and modern human) history. It proves that Kobek must believe In rehabilitation—something easy to preach, and yet entirely difficult, impossible even, to embrace for our worst criminals. At any rate, ATTA is also, as the descriptions of the book suggest, an alternative theory on the partial causes of 9/11, a theory that, while maybe seen with a morbid curiosity, breaks some of the stereotypical assumptions of what inspired the attack and those willing to carry out it. With not a little bit of a nod to the style of a Notes From Underground, ATTA isn’t allowed (with good reason) to indulge too much in the mesmeric ramblings of a self-professed outcast, because there is no literary figure at its heart, but a man many believe (also with good reason) to be pure evil. It’s a hard sell to say that people should read this book. It is a risk, one that sets fiction apart from many other mediums. And yet Kobek strikes just the right balance of poetic interpretation and staying the course an honest approach. Maybe it is still too soon to champion such a book, but I’m willing to do so in this case. It’s one of the best I’ve ever read.
**a “fun” short story is included, The Whitman of Tikrit, about Saddam’s last days in his hideout bunker. It doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of ATTA, but it is an appreciated addition worth every word.
**a “fun” short story is included, The Whitman of Tikrit, about Saddam’s last days in his hideout bunker. It doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of ATTA, but it is an appreciated addition worth every word.
Read
July 11, 2025Atta is one release in a series of small texts from the publisher Semiotexte. Most of these books were critical theory/philosophy discourses, but this is a work of fiction and it is really outstanding. It may be Jarrett Kobek's best work; his powers of insight into the heart of darkness are on full display here.
Atta is the fictional telling of the life of Mohammed Atta, the Eygptian terrorist who was one of the lead hijackers that flew planes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Mohammed Atta studied architecture and eventually came to believe that Western Architecture, and by extension Western/American culture, were a poison to the culture of the Arab world. Kobek uses Atta's voice to level deep critiques and expose the pathologies of American culture. For instance he absolutely skewers the Disney industrial complex and how it creates a society of passive consumers and childish/selfish adults.
But this is not a sympathetic portrait of Mohammed Atta. He is not a hero here by any means, even if some of his critiques ring true, which makes this account of his life so believable. Kobek presents him as a deeply disturbed man. He is shown as a man whose repressed sexuality and deviance drive him further and further into fanaticism and hatred.
Atta is the fictional telling of the life of Mohammed Atta, the Eygptian terrorist who was one of the lead hijackers that flew planes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Mohammed Atta studied architecture and eventually came to believe that Western Architecture, and by extension Western/American culture, were a poison to the culture of the Arab world. Kobek uses Atta's voice to level deep critiques and expose the pathologies of American culture. For instance he absolutely skewers the Disney industrial complex and how it creates a society of passive consumers and childish/selfish adults.
But this is not a sympathetic portrait of Mohammed Atta. He is not a hero here by any means, even if some of his critiques ring true, which makes this account of his life so believable. Kobek presents him as a deeply disturbed man. He is shown as a man whose repressed sexuality and deviance drive him further and further into fanaticism and hatred.
August 1, 2015
Atta is a book that is hard to describe. Meticulous, fascinating, disturbing.
In some ways it might be best to go into this book with no knowledge of what is within, which is how I did it. To be so thoroughly introduced to the internal voice and thought process of a character who is often used to exemplify inhumanity, and whose acts are well deserving of revilement, is to repudiate dehumanization, generalization and demonization. Even our worst enemies are still people; their thoughts and motivations are not uniform, and may not even be what we suspect. Even the clearest of evils does not have the clearest of sources.
Jarett Kobek writes a well-researched historical fiction Few books will make you think more.
In some ways it might be best to go into this book with no knowledge of what is within, which is how I did it. To be so thoroughly introduced to the internal voice and thought process of a character who is often used to exemplify inhumanity, and whose acts are well deserving of revilement, is to repudiate dehumanization, generalization and demonization. Even our worst enemies are still people; their thoughts and motivations are not uniform, and may not even be what we suspect. Even the clearest of evils does not have the clearest of sources.
Jarett Kobek writes a well-researched historical fiction Few books will make you think more.
November 7, 2023
More insane historiographic metafiction from the raucous Jarett Kobek
Full of stuff that seems too crazy to be fake, like Osama making alpha moves via volleyball or Saddam being really into *Leaves of Grass*
The really productive really interesting strategy is the projection of Atta’s architectural theories (hatred of globohomo modernism, reverence for broad history’s idiosyncrasies) into psychology, esp as they relate to uh him doing 9/11… reads like incel lit in a way… blah blah blah why is the protagonist so unsympathetic blah blah blah. Dark stuff but the strategy here makes for some deeply funny material ultimately. Which is probably more interesting qua entertainment or morals than idk Wikipedia or whatever other propaganda gets fed about this man
Full of stuff that seems too crazy to be fake, like Osama making alpha moves via volleyball or Saddam being really into *Leaves of Grass*
The really productive really interesting strategy is the projection of Atta’s architectural theories (hatred of globohomo modernism, reverence for broad history’s idiosyncrasies) into psychology, esp as they relate to uh him doing 9/11… reads like incel lit in a way… blah blah blah why is the protagonist so unsympathetic blah blah blah. Dark stuff but the strategy here makes for some deeply funny material ultimately. Which is probably more interesting qua entertainment or morals than idk Wikipedia or whatever other propaganda gets fed about this man
January 9, 2020
Really interesting to see the mindset and history of the man who headed this suicide death squad. He's self-contradictory in many ways especially the ending about his description (unsubmitted thesis) of Aleppo and the hypocritical action he took on Sep 11th. But I must say, I did find some of his comments about the decadent West to be spot on. Extremism, in one way or another, is never a good thing.
I also found the short story "The Whitman of Tikrit" to be a fun read. The Tyrant's last days made for a good laugh. I feel sorry for the Iraqis of the 80s and 90s under him and of course the 00s under the US.
I also found the short story "The Whitman of Tikrit" to be a fun read. The Tyrant's last days made for a good laugh. I feel sorry for the Iraqis of the 80s and 90s under him and of course the 00s under the US.
September 13, 2021
An astonishing novella that is at once inflammatory, hilarious, even poignant, and altogether charged with the oppressive feeling of impending disaster.
July 17, 2016
This book was haunting, dealing with a fictionalized 1st person account of 9/11 pilot Mohammed Atta and his hatred for architecture. It's quite gripping, the jumbled timeline and the childhood memories, the religious zeal keeping him from connecting with literally anyone. Anyway it's great, weird and terrifying.
March 8, 2016
Ehhh. Kind of an extended punchline. What did this book want to be? Atta wasn't a sympathetic character, the architecture "joke" or whatever it was didn't really need to be turned into an entire book. Well written and propulsive but I have no idea why it exists.
October 7, 2011
This is a unique undertaking that tries to answer a lot of questions that might fascinate people. Of course, it has to be read as fiction...and not by anyone too light-hearted.
Read
August 11, 2012That the actual subject matter of the book, very slowly dawned on me was really cool. I also liked the Muslim interpretation of silent night, deadly night.
December 12, 2012
Hatred for America. Loathing of materialism. Desire for another world.
Resonant themes from a far away and detestable perspective.
Resonant themes from a far away and detestable perspective.
April 1, 2015
This book is a gripping, tension-building book, even though you know the outcome from the beginning. If you read one book about 9/11, this is the one to choose.
April 7, 2016
Stunning and yet so very simple.
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