LA’s review of Zeitoun > Likes and Comments
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Nothing like going to the source, LeAnne! (Though the Zeitouns sound kind of interesting in a dark Travelers sort of way, but perhaps not romanticized in a novel)
Lol! They are perfect fictional characters! The stories I could tell are beyond reckoning.
They could not get an attempted murder conviction to stick on the tire iron attack. "... bench trial of charges that he attempted to beat his wife to death with a tire iron on Prytania Street in July 2012 and that he later solicited a fellow inmate to murder her for $20,000."
Sounds interesting. Although if you say these guys are con artists they should be behind bars. Worth the read for me? Or is the other New Orleans book you read a better tale?
It is a good read, however Zeitoun "borrows" someone else's canoe and supposedly is a good Samaritan to stranded people and dogs through the first half of the book. He is later caught with goods in his canoe that look to be stolen, so he is arrested for looting. He claims that he was not looting but helping a fellow move into his house by canoe - and that he was ethnically profiled because he is Syrian. If this were all true or if it were a work of fiction, the story works, and you feel outraged for him being put in the outdoor lock up with criminals.
An outstanding, objective, and very well researched work of nonfiction is Five Days at Memorial. Excellent stuff.
Oh, and both the cousin have spent plenty of time behind bars for multiple crimes. They have gotten out since.
OMG, LeAnne. So loved the fact you have passed on this info. I read this last year and was appalled with the treatment many endured after Katrina. So sad Eggers was duped. This just further adds to the demise Katrina left behind.
Mary wrote: "OMG, LeAnne. So loved the fact you have passed on this info. I read this last year and was appalled with the treatment many endured after Katrina. So sad Eggers was duped. This just further adds to..."
Sometimes if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it really isn't profiling. He was in a canoe that he did not own. He had valuable items in said canoe that were not his own. He had huge sums of cash on him. The thing about a natural disaster is that you can take a handful of facts and massage them to fit your whim.
Eggers did not receive a dime from the book but instead set it up that the Zeitoun's "foundation" would distribute the funds. OMG.
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/...
According to a New Orleans Police Department report, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, was arrested last March after officers responded to a domestic battery call at the Uptown home of his wife Kathryn and the couple’s five children.
Upon arriving at the Dart Street residence, cops found Kathryn face down on the living room floor holding an ice-filled cloth to her forehead. Three of her children were nearby “crying hysterically,” police reported.
Kathryn Zeitoun, 40, told officers that she was separated from her husband “due to finances,” and that he was living next door in a home on Dart Street. She said that after her estranged husband entered the home around 6:30 PM on March 2, they got into a “heated verbal argument” that quickly became physical.
Zeitoun told cops that her husband pushed her to the living room floor, “mounting her and hitting her in the back of the head with a closed fist.” She added that, “her face was smashed into the floor of the residence several times during the battery,” police reported.
The assault ended when the couple’s 15-year-old daughter--responding to her mother’s screams for help--kicked her father in the neck, causing him to fall off Kathryn and flee the residence. The teen said she observed her father “beating her mother.” A second daughter interviewed by cops corroborated statements by her mother and sister (the child watched the entire assault from the kitchen).
Before an ambulance arrived to transport her to Tulane University Hospital, Kathryn told officers that she has “received beatings from her husband several times prior,” but that she “never reported them to the police out of fear.” The police report does not include further details of these alleged prior attacks.
Abdularahman Zeitoun, a contractor and landlord, was later arrested and named in a March 30 criminal information charging him with domestic abuse battery. Zeitoun is pictured in the above mug shot.
In a subsequent plea bargain, Zeitoun copped to a reduced charge of negligent injuring. During a June 9 District Court hearing, he received a six-month suspended jail term and was placed on two years of “intensive probation.” He was also barred from owning a gun and directed to complete a 26-week anger management course. Additionally, a judge issued a protective order barring him from contacting his wife.
What a terrific story your review is, LeAnne! I loved another of his books, but I'm not sure I could read this one now, feeling like Eggers was conned. Wow!
PattyMacDotComma wrote: "What a terrific story your review is, LeAnne! I loved another of his books, but I'm not sure I could read this one now, feeling like Eggers was conned. Wow!"
Thanks, Patty. Eggers writes beautifully, so the story is well done. You might read it out of curiosity alone - but if one purchases the book to read it, that cash goes straight to the Zeitouns instead of this kind-hearted author. Libraries do carry it. In sum, the book makes this guy look like a Good Samaritan who eventually was racially profiled and then locked up like an animal in an outdoor cage, having done nothing wrong and only good.
Eggers is not alone in being duped. These cousins were very, very smooth talkers. Otherwise our mayor, DA, (my husband!), and others would not have hired them or others would not have paid them tens of thousands of dollars up front.
Wow, I had no idea. Glad I read the book first.
Yep! I read the book out of curiosity after all the attempted murder arrests - made me face-palm every handful of pages for the poor author. Nice writing, though!
wow, quite the expose. Makes me really wonder about Eggers. I have lived in the SF Bay Area for most of the my life and have covered Silicon Valley as a journalist and author for several years. Eggers got it completely wrong in his ridiculous book "The Circle." The east coast media ate it up, but it had no fact-check frame of reference. Eggers went on record that he did NO research for the book. He prides himself on that, but claims to depict what it's really like in the mythical company he depicts. A definite red flag.
Elyse wrote: "Oh ... this issue continues to come up ... again and again...
At the time Eggers wrote Zeitoun -Eggers wrote his story with the facts he had...
Zeitoun was not arrested until about a year or longe..."
Hey girl! Yes, had the "facts" of this book been mostly accurate, the story would have been compelling. But the Zeitoun cousins were long time con men - I'm talking 20+ years of lying to people, stealing their money, identity, etc waaaaaay before Katrina.
If you told any New Orleans uptowner that one of these two was in a boat they did not own tooling around deserted homes and breaking in "to save animals", was loaded with cash, was carrying household valuables for a "friend", and then you asked us if we thought Zeitoun was stealing? HA! You bet your butt we'd think he was stealing!
As for the outdoor jail, let me explain something about what we all went through here with Katrina. Way out in the suburbs, north of Lake Pontchartrain, power came on in some spots - at the very earliest - two weeks after the levees breached. Running water had to be boiled for weeks after that.
In the city, where the criminals were rounded up? Some places had no power for months. No water for toilets to flush. That outdoor holding pen for looters and thieves? It was a godsend! Daytime temps were 96 - if they were to put murderers and armed robbers into the multi story jail - which does not have nice, large windows with screens - they would have died of heat stroke. Temperatures inside multistory buildings were 105.
By using outdoor containment in the shade of the building, they got a breeze. They got clean port-o-lets. They got clean bottled water. The police had their houses completely flooded. There were natural gas fires everywhere. People were trapped inside their attics by water and they baked to death up there. That thieves were kept in an airy outdoor holding area? That was nothing. You had to live through this and see the devastation to know.
As for him suddenly becoming violent all of a sudden after Katrina, Kathy has testified under oath in court that he started beating her in 1994. She took it like a good wife until he ended up braining her with the tire iron on Prytania Street (where I used to live!) and when the kids called 911 as he was smashing her head into the floor at their home further into the Carrollton area. She and the kids benefitted financially from the sale of Egger's book, so it makes sense she held her tongue for as long as she could.
Since the latest arrest, he finally got out of jail but is now in trouble for stalking her. This guy is and was trouble.
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orlean...
I'm not suggesting to anyone that they not read the book - I repeatedly said it is good. But if you PAY for the book, the money goes to the Zeitouns "foundation."
Go to the library instead.
Michael wrote: "wow, quite the expose. Makes me really wonder about Eggers. I have lived in the SF Bay Area for most of the my life and have covered Silicon Valley as a journalist and author for several years. Egg..."
No kidding! I've never heard of The Circle - the only thing I've read of his is his memoir, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." The title is pretty darn pompous sounding, but I thought the book was well done - if long.
Very strange that he prides himself on no research. The only author I know who has done that was Michael Farris Smith when he wrote Rivers. But the book (which is absolutely outstanding) is set in the near future on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where he lived for many years. When the time frame is dystopian, and you're writing about the now-destroyed streets and casinos you know like the back of your hand, I can see skipping research.
All I know is that Harry Connick Jr's dad was the DA for many years, and he lived in the same neighborhood as us. He hired the Zeitouns as did our Mayor Marc Morial (who lived maybe 2 miles from me). These are obviously intelligent men, and they DID get their homes painted beautifully for a reasonable fee....but they were then used as unknowing shills, luring in those that would later get ripped off.
These cousins were very smooth. If Eggers was known for not fact-checking his first book, then maybe the bait of a poor beleaguered hero being tossed unfairly in a cage was too much to not bite.
I've got to go read up on The Circle! Thanks.
I also read "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Eggers is a good stylist, no question about it. But, for starters, there was no sign of that in "The Circle." He seems to have written the book in great haste. And I think he wrote it just for the money. I did not see any sense of professional pride there.
I subscribe to the NYT and still recall when The Circle was the cover story for the magazine one Sunday. When I saw it was Eggers, I immediately read the excerpt in the magazine. It was awful. But he seemed to know that the NYT would buy into it and promote it heavily. The Times business model has been upended by the digital wave. So they easily bought into the idea that such change was part of some kind of global dystopian conspiracy. It's quite silly and written on a fifth grade level.
Meanwhile, I read Zeitoun and thought it was real. Your expose is rather breathtaking. Eggers was seriously bamboozled. It seems as if he did no background research on these people, but just believed what they told him. You can't do that. You to question and verify.
Michael, that is pretty interesting about the NYT. It has become readily apparent that television media have gone for the brass rings of entertainment and ratings, but one would hope that print journalists and editors - if there really still are such things - answer to a higher calling.
It is funny that somebody liked this old review of mine and kicked back off a discussion. I just finished a piece of fiction that paralleled the murder trial of Amanda Knox. The author was over-the-top in her blatant mirroring, but she did so with clever intent.
If Eggers had done the same thing here, I would likely give the book 5 stars.
What is curious to me is that there seem to be no New Orleanians on Goodreads! Readers of nonfiction should not have to go to a random, non-professional review in order to learn the background story, but there we have it.
At least the various links above will be helpful. I have not checked to see if Eggers has written anything lately, but I will bet you a doughnut that if it is nonfiction, he has started to do his homework. Bless his heart.
Even with all the Orwellian vibe in the news today, I think we live in more of a Huxleyan world. I realized this after reading "Brave New World" for the first time early last year. I am going to send you a brilliant quote about this by a social critic who first sounded the bell when he wrote a book about TV.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the Recession I have seen the content of the NYT slide down hill. There is very little investigative reporting any more. And they are stuck in a doomed business model, which they are rather bitter about...
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com...
due to your expose of this book, I have lowered my rating on it. Looking back on the story, it seems that Zeitoun was likely burglarizing houses rather than rescuing people. And this is why he was arrested.
Wow, your review certainly got my attention. It's great! Now I must read the book AND do some research too.
Debbie, it is a far more interesting and voyeuristic book knowing these things while reading it. Enjoy!
I want the author to see this review. After reading what you wrote, which sounds like no secret among the locals, I cannot imagine what Eggers thought he was doing in trying to build this incredible hearts and flowers fantasy around a man who so clearly is The Devil. Pretty disgusting.
Stacey wrote: "I want the author to see this review. After reading what you wrote, which sounds like no secret among the locals, I cannot imagine what Eggers thought he was doing in trying to build this incredibl..."
I feel certain he now knows all of this information. Another commentor up above said that the author was given a bad time by some critics because he 'seemed' to brag a little bit about not needing to do research for an earlier book. I do not know anything about that but could imagine that the New York Times guys might have disliked that bravado.
When Zeton/Zeitoun (they use multiple spellings when I lived uptown) was arrested the first time, Eggers caught flak. The subsequent arrests, the old fraud charges, Better Business Bureau complaints, etc are things Im sure he has had pointed out to him. He is on tape somewhere bailing out of a Q&A with someone when they brought up the Zeitoun book.
People get taken in by conmen all the time. Unfortunately for the author, this just happened on a much wider scale
Elyse wrote: "Personally... I'm fine with people buying the book!
I'm sick of Eggers taking so much slack - and isn't the WIFE and KIDS part of that foundation.
But either way .. I guess ... to I'm sick of th..."
That outdoor prison was the only humane alternative, Elyse. They would have baked to death inside. The National Guard was also living out of doors, as were many survivors. We had to sleep inside because my children were toddlers who might wander off out of doors while my husband and I slept. The heat with the windows open was bad at night time, but we stayed out of doors during daylight hours to catch a breeze.
If you haven't read Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, check it out - the hospital staff was able to smash windows for ventilation, but still being trapped in a multi story 105 degree building for days on end killed people.
As for Eggers, Im not expressing anything negative about him. Ive already praised him and clearly stated that he was not the only intelligent person who was hoodwinked and was immensely kind to have all proceeds go to the Zetons.
??
** all proceeds go to the Zeitoun's 'foundation'
I see he also took out a contract on his wife. Apparently, Eggers was trying to highlight someone who had been persecuted for his heritage and religion, but unfortunately this guy turned out to be the wrong choice, big time.
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2...
Yep. Eggers believed the whole song and dance and tried to do the right thing.
I had no idea when I read it. I now see this as a cautionary tale. We are all prone to confirmation bias, i.e. looking for the data or the story that justifies our preconceived notions.
I was wondering about that -- the story is so engaging, and Camp Greyhound sounds so horrifying, but there was something off in how clean, how wholesome, how great Zeitoun came off as. Granted, you see that in memoirs too: it's easier to strip nuance for the sake of a simpler story. But, just...wow. Now I think about the things Kathy was afflicted with in 2008 and I'm seeing that in a whole new light.
Abby wrote: "I was wondering about that -- the story is so engaging, and Camp Greyhound sounds so horrifying, but there was something off in how clean, how wholesome, how great Zeitoun came off as. Granted, you..."
Yep! The entire tale was utterly captivating, partly because much of the nation saw news coverage on Katrina's ugly impact, but also because Eggers is a gifted writer. That bothersome, doubting little worm gnawing on the edge of believability was a good instinct, Abby. I wanted to swallow this hook, line, and sinker, and had this man not been so notoriously known in Uptown New Orleans, I'd have counted him as a hero.
Just recently, one of my book groups read a historical novel "based on actual events" and inspired by interviews with a (still living, bless his heart!) Italian veteran of WWII. While the gentleman truly made some risky treks to escort refugees over the Alps to safety, his heroic exploits were so ricidulously overdone by the writer that the book - which set out to honor this real gent - ended up as a parody of Forrest Gump.
Its a testament to Eggers' skill that Zeitoun came out smelling like roses instead.
How could the author have written an entire book about the Zeitouns without talking to at least some of the neighbours? And since you said that people around there know about their reputations, well then... seems like the writer was intentionally glossing things over.
Zak wrote: "How could the author have written an entire book about the Zeitouns without talking to at least some of the neighbours? And since you said that people around there know about their reputations, wel..."
In a normal world, your points make sense, Zak. It was like a war zone here for a very long time after the hurricane - imagine 7 dams bursting in one city. There was no power for months on end. Debris higher than where the houses had been in certain areas. More than half the population left the city to stay in outlying suburbs, in different cities. Businesses shut down for months.
I think the author was very well intentioned and also outraged on what he considered a case of ethnic profiling - research could not have been easily done but yes - he could have looked into things more closely. Another poster said that the writer caught flak for an earlier novel where he practically boasted that he had done zero research for it - it was fiction, after all. Perhaps he was still in that mindset.
This book, in the opinion of me and many of our local friends who read it, is that the whole thing is an erroneous urban myth. If it were a work of fiction, I'd have loved it - Eggers has great talent. But nonfiction? No way.
OMG. This is horrendous. Thank you for the information, LeAnne. I removed the book from my TBR.
Wow. Thanks for your review, LeAnne. I've read other books by this author. Loved one. So I might have tried this one.
Caroline wrote: "OMG. This is horrendous. Thank you for the information, LeAnne. I removed the book from my TBR."
Well, it DOES read really well. A library copy might be an option that doesn't feed cash into the Z funds...although it may have had its income stream from sales changed in light of things that revealed themselves over time. No clue, but Eggers is a good writer.
Lisa wrote: "Wow. Thanks for your review, LeAnne. I've read other books by this author. Loved one. So I might have tried this one."
He is a lovely writer, and had I not known this family personally would have been incensed at how the protagonist was treated. If you go in thinking of it as fiction, it might be enjoyable.
LeAnne wrote: "He is a lovely writer, and had I not known this family personally would have been incensed at how the protagonist was treated. If you go in thinking of it as fiction, it might be enjoyable."
Thanks, LeAnne, but I think I'll skip this one. Too many other better books.
In an era where people like Jayson Blair, Janet Cooke and Stephen Glass are paid Journalist who fabricate stories rather than work to address real issues, I am truly disappointed that this is being billed as based on a true story. I have read several of Eggers books and I won't be reading any in the future. Thank you for taking the risk of speaking the truth about the characters and sharing your personal experience.
Kathryn wrote: "In an era where people like Jayson Blair, Janet Cooke and Stephen Glass are paid Journalist who fabricate stories rather than work to address real issues, I am truly disappointed that this is being..."
I appreciate your kind words here, Kathryn. It's never easy to write a somewhat negative review, but as a New Orleanian it felt especially right to let people know that this mistreated hero lived primarily in the mind of Mr. Eggers, not in the real world.
Thank you for this review! I just read the book and it was very powerful to me. I also read what happened to Zeitoun and how he tried to kill his wife. It definitely doesn't add up with the peaceful life they had in the novel. Also, the racism of the family was also unknown to me, but not surprising. I will say however, that I thought the book was a very educating glimpse into the intersection of climate refugees and racism towards Muslims in the US. Great Review btw!!
Lora wrote: "Wow!"
Crazy, huh? The book is beautifully done and casts Zeitoun as some beleaguered good Samaritan, preyed upon just because of his national origin. Total wolf in sheep's clothing.
Yikes. Guess I should have read this before writing my review...
Colleen wrote: "Yikes. Guess I should have read this before writing my review..."
Don't feel bad. We all want to root for the underdog, and the author writes the story beautifully. He got conned. His readers got conned. Unless people are locals from uptown New Orleans and of a certain age group, they're going to buy every word as truth.
Know what's funny? Not sure if you know who Harry Connick Jr, is, but his dad was the district attorney for Orleans Parish for about 30 years. The Zeitouns painted his house maybe a year or so before they came to mine, and they were ingenious enough to do an absolutely gorgeous job of it, very timely, very clean work space, and charge a super competitive rate. Mr. Connick allowed them to take a photo of his home to include in their scrap book and to include the information that he was a satisfied customer. THAT is how clever the Zeitoun cousins were. Of course, after that, everybody trusted them.
There was a couple of ladies who owned a giant old house in the lower Garden District and ran it as a B&B. They paid the entire fee to sand, repair, caulk, and paint the massive old place up front. Months later, the Zeitouns had done zero work, and they ended up filing with the Better Business Bureau.
In your wildest dreams. would you EVER pay a contractor the entire fee up front? These guys were smooth operators.
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May 29, 2016 06:03AM
Nothing like going to the source, LeAnne! (Though the Zeitouns sound kind of interesting in a dark Travelers sort of way, but perhaps not romanticized in a novel)
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Lol! They are perfect fictional characters! The stories I could tell are beyond reckoning.
They could not get an attempted murder conviction to stick on the tire iron attack. "... bench trial of charges that he attempted to beat his wife to death with a tire iron on Prytania Street in July 2012 and that he later solicited a fellow inmate to murder her for $20,000."
Sounds interesting. Although if you say these guys are con artists they should be behind bars. Worth the read for me? Or is the other New Orleans book you read a better tale?
It is a good read, however Zeitoun "borrows" someone else's canoe and supposedly is a good Samaritan to stranded people and dogs through the first half of the book. He is later caught with goods in his canoe that look to be stolen, so he is arrested for looting. He claims that he was not looting but helping a fellow move into his house by canoe - and that he was ethnically profiled because he is Syrian. If this were all true or if it were a work of fiction, the story works, and you feel outraged for him being put in the outdoor lock up with criminals. An outstanding, objective, and very well researched work of nonfiction is Five Days at Memorial. Excellent stuff.
Oh, and both the cousin have spent plenty of time behind bars for multiple crimes. They have gotten out since.
OMG, LeAnne. So loved the fact you have passed on this info. I read this last year and was appalled with the treatment many endured after Katrina. So sad Eggers was duped. This just further adds to the demise Katrina left behind.
Mary wrote: "OMG, LeAnne. So loved the fact you have passed on this info. I read this last year and was appalled with the treatment many endured after Katrina. So sad Eggers was duped. This just further adds to..."Sometimes if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it really isn't profiling. He was in a canoe that he did not own. He had valuable items in said canoe that were not his own. He had huge sums of cash on him. The thing about a natural disaster is that you can take a handful of facts and massage them to fit your whim.
Eggers did not receive a dime from the book but instead set it up that the Zeitoun's "foundation" would distribute the funds. OMG.
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/...According to a New Orleans Police Department report, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, was arrested last March after officers responded to a domestic battery call at the Uptown home of his wife Kathryn and the couple’s five children.
Upon arriving at the Dart Street residence, cops found Kathryn face down on the living room floor holding an ice-filled cloth to her forehead. Three of her children were nearby “crying hysterically,” police reported.
Kathryn Zeitoun, 40, told officers that she was separated from her husband “due to finances,” and that he was living next door in a home on Dart Street. She said that after her estranged husband entered the home around 6:30 PM on March 2, they got into a “heated verbal argument” that quickly became physical.
Zeitoun told cops that her husband pushed her to the living room floor, “mounting her and hitting her in the back of the head with a closed fist.” She added that, “her face was smashed into the floor of the residence several times during the battery,” police reported.
The assault ended when the couple’s 15-year-old daughter--responding to her mother’s screams for help--kicked her father in the neck, causing him to fall off Kathryn and flee the residence. The teen said she observed her father “beating her mother.” A second daughter interviewed by cops corroborated statements by her mother and sister (the child watched the entire assault from the kitchen).
Before an ambulance arrived to transport her to Tulane University Hospital, Kathryn told officers that she has “received beatings from her husband several times prior,” but that she “never reported them to the police out of fear.” The police report does not include further details of these alleged prior attacks.
Abdularahman Zeitoun, a contractor and landlord, was later arrested and named in a March 30 criminal information charging him with domestic abuse battery. Zeitoun is pictured in the above mug shot.
In a subsequent plea bargain, Zeitoun copped to a reduced charge of negligent injuring. During a June 9 District Court hearing, he received a six-month suspended jail term and was placed on two years of “intensive probation.” He was also barred from owning a gun and directed to complete a 26-week anger management course. Additionally, a judge issued a protective order barring him from contacting his wife.
What a terrific story your review is, LeAnne! I loved another of his books, but I'm not sure I could read this one now, feeling like Eggers was conned. Wow!
PattyMacDotComma wrote: "What a terrific story your review is, LeAnne! I loved another of his books, but I'm not sure I could read this one now, feeling like Eggers was conned. Wow!"Thanks, Patty. Eggers writes beautifully, so the story is well done. You might read it out of curiosity alone - but if one purchases the book to read it, that cash goes straight to the Zeitouns instead of this kind-hearted author. Libraries do carry it. In sum, the book makes this guy look like a Good Samaritan who eventually was racially profiled and then locked up like an animal in an outdoor cage, having done nothing wrong and only good.
Eggers is not alone in being duped. These cousins were very, very smooth talkers. Otherwise our mayor, DA, (my husband!), and others would not have hired them or others would not have paid them tens of thousands of dollars up front.
Wow, I had no idea. Glad I read the book first.
Yep! I read the book out of curiosity after all the attempted murder arrests - made me face-palm every handful of pages for the poor author. Nice writing, though!
wow, quite the expose. Makes me really wonder about Eggers. I have lived in the SF Bay Area for most of the my life and have covered Silicon Valley as a journalist and author for several years. Eggers got it completely wrong in his ridiculous book "The Circle." The east coast media ate it up, but it had no fact-check frame of reference. Eggers went on record that he did NO research for the book. He prides himself on that, but claims to depict what it's really like in the mythical company he depicts. A definite red flag.
Elyse wrote: "Oh ... this issue continues to come up ... again and again...At the time Eggers wrote Zeitoun -Eggers wrote his story with the facts he had...
Zeitoun was not arrested until about a year or longe..."
Hey girl! Yes, had the "facts" of this book been mostly accurate, the story would have been compelling. But the Zeitoun cousins were long time con men - I'm talking 20+ years of lying to people, stealing their money, identity, etc waaaaaay before Katrina.
If you told any New Orleans uptowner that one of these two was in a boat they did not own tooling around deserted homes and breaking in "to save animals", was loaded with cash, was carrying household valuables for a "friend", and then you asked us if we thought Zeitoun was stealing? HA! You bet your butt we'd think he was stealing!
As for the outdoor jail, let me explain something about what we all went through here with Katrina. Way out in the suburbs, north of Lake Pontchartrain, power came on in some spots - at the very earliest - two weeks after the levees breached. Running water had to be boiled for weeks after that.
In the city, where the criminals were rounded up? Some places had no power for months. No water for toilets to flush. That outdoor holding pen for looters and thieves? It was a godsend! Daytime temps were 96 - if they were to put murderers and armed robbers into the multi story jail - which does not have nice, large windows with screens - they would have died of heat stroke. Temperatures inside multistory buildings were 105.
By using outdoor containment in the shade of the building, they got a breeze. They got clean port-o-lets. They got clean bottled water. The police had their houses completely flooded. There were natural gas fires everywhere. People were trapped inside their attics by water and they baked to death up there. That thieves were kept in an airy outdoor holding area? That was nothing. You had to live through this and see the devastation to know.
As for him suddenly becoming violent all of a sudden after Katrina, Kathy has testified under oath in court that he started beating her in 1994. She took it like a good wife until he ended up braining her with the tire iron on Prytania Street (where I used to live!) and when the kids called 911 as he was smashing her head into the floor at their home further into the Carrollton area. She and the kids benefitted financially from the sale of Egger's book, so it makes sense she held her tongue for as long as she could.
Since the latest arrest, he finally got out of jail but is now in trouble for stalking her. This guy is and was trouble.
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orlean...
I'm not suggesting to anyone that they not read the book - I repeatedly said it is good. But if you PAY for the book, the money goes to the Zeitouns "foundation."
Go to the library instead.
Michael wrote: "wow, quite the expose. Makes me really wonder about Eggers. I have lived in the SF Bay Area for most of the my life and have covered Silicon Valley as a journalist and author for several years. Egg..."No kidding! I've never heard of The Circle - the only thing I've read of his is his memoir, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." The title is pretty darn pompous sounding, but I thought the book was well done - if long.
Very strange that he prides himself on no research. The only author I know who has done that was Michael Farris Smith when he wrote Rivers. But the book (which is absolutely outstanding) is set in the near future on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where he lived for many years. When the time frame is dystopian, and you're writing about the now-destroyed streets and casinos you know like the back of your hand, I can see skipping research.
All I know is that Harry Connick Jr's dad was the DA for many years, and he lived in the same neighborhood as us. He hired the Zeitouns as did our Mayor Marc Morial (who lived maybe 2 miles from me). These are obviously intelligent men, and they DID get their homes painted beautifully for a reasonable fee....but they were then used as unknowing shills, luring in those that would later get ripped off.
These cousins were very smooth. If Eggers was known for not fact-checking his first book, then maybe the bait of a poor beleaguered hero being tossed unfairly in a cage was too much to not bite.
I've got to go read up on The Circle! Thanks.
I also read "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Eggers is a good stylist, no question about it. But, for starters, there was no sign of that in "The Circle." He seems to have written the book in great haste. And I think he wrote it just for the money. I did not see any sense of professional pride there.I subscribe to the NYT and still recall when The Circle was the cover story for the magazine one Sunday. When I saw it was Eggers, I immediately read the excerpt in the magazine. It was awful. But he seemed to know that the NYT would buy into it and promote it heavily. The Times business model has been upended by the digital wave. So they easily bought into the idea that such change was part of some kind of global dystopian conspiracy. It's quite silly and written on a fifth grade level.
Meanwhile, I read Zeitoun and thought it was real. Your expose is rather breathtaking. Eggers was seriously bamboozled. It seems as if he did no background research on these people, but just believed what they told him. You can't do that. You to question and verify.
Michael, that is pretty interesting about the NYT. It has become readily apparent that television media have gone for the brass rings of entertainment and ratings, but one would hope that print journalists and editors - if there really still are such things - answer to a higher calling. It is funny that somebody liked this old review of mine and kicked back off a discussion. I just finished a piece of fiction that paralleled the murder trial of Amanda Knox. The author was over-the-top in her blatant mirroring, but she did so with clever intent.
If Eggers had done the same thing here, I would likely give the book 5 stars.
What is curious to me is that there seem to be no New Orleanians on Goodreads! Readers of nonfiction should not have to go to a random, non-professional review in order to learn the background story, but there we have it.
At least the various links above will be helpful. I have not checked to see if Eggers has written anything lately, but I will bet you a doughnut that if it is nonfiction, he has started to do his homework. Bless his heart.
Even with all the Orwellian vibe in the news today, I think we live in more of a Huxleyan world. I realized this after reading "Brave New World" for the first time early last year. I am going to send you a brilliant quote about this by a social critic who first sounded the bell when he wrote a book about TV. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Recession I have seen the content of the NYT slide down hill. There is very little investigative reporting any more. And they are stuck in a doomed business model, which they are rather bitter about...
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com...
due to your expose of this book, I have lowered my rating on it. Looking back on the story, it seems that Zeitoun was likely burglarizing houses rather than rescuing people. And this is why he was arrested.
Wow, your review certainly got my attention. It's great! Now I must read the book AND do some research too.
Debbie, it is a far more interesting and voyeuristic book knowing these things while reading it. Enjoy!
I want the author to see this review. After reading what you wrote, which sounds like no secret among the locals, I cannot imagine what Eggers thought he was doing in trying to build this incredible hearts and flowers fantasy around a man who so clearly is The Devil. Pretty disgusting.
Stacey wrote: "I want the author to see this review. After reading what you wrote, which sounds like no secret among the locals, I cannot imagine what Eggers thought he was doing in trying to build this incredibl..."I feel certain he now knows all of this information. Another commentor up above said that the author was given a bad time by some critics because he 'seemed' to brag a little bit about not needing to do research for an earlier book. I do not know anything about that but could imagine that the New York Times guys might have disliked that bravado.
When Zeton/Zeitoun (they use multiple spellings when I lived uptown) was arrested the first time, Eggers caught flak. The subsequent arrests, the old fraud charges, Better Business Bureau complaints, etc are things Im sure he has had pointed out to him. He is on tape somewhere bailing out of a Q&A with someone when they brought up the Zeitoun book.
People get taken in by conmen all the time. Unfortunately for the author, this just happened on a much wider scale
Elyse wrote: "Personally... I'm fine with people buying the book! I'm sick of Eggers taking so much slack - and isn't the WIFE and KIDS part of that foundation.
But either way .. I guess ... to I'm sick of th..."
That outdoor prison was the only humane alternative, Elyse. They would have baked to death inside. The National Guard was also living out of doors, as were many survivors. We had to sleep inside because my children were toddlers who might wander off out of doors while my husband and I slept. The heat with the windows open was bad at night time, but we stayed out of doors during daylight hours to catch a breeze.
If you haven't read Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, check it out - the hospital staff was able to smash windows for ventilation, but still being trapped in a multi story 105 degree building for days on end killed people.
As for Eggers, Im not expressing anything negative about him. Ive already praised him and clearly stated that he was not the only intelligent person who was hoodwinked and was immensely kind to have all proceeds go to the Zetons.
??
** all proceeds go to the Zeitoun's 'foundation'
I see he also took out a contract on his wife. Apparently, Eggers was trying to highlight someone who had been persecuted for his heritage and religion, but unfortunately this guy turned out to be the wrong choice, big time.http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2...
Yep. Eggers believed the whole song and dance and tried to do the right thing.
I had no idea when I read it. I now see this as a cautionary tale. We are all prone to confirmation bias, i.e. looking for the data or the story that justifies our preconceived notions.
I was wondering about that -- the story is so engaging, and Camp Greyhound sounds so horrifying, but there was something off in how clean, how wholesome, how great Zeitoun came off as. Granted, you see that in memoirs too: it's easier to strip nuance for the sake of a simpler story. But, just...wow. Now I think about the things Kathy was afflicted with in 2008 and I'm seeing that in a whole new light.
Abby wrote: "I was wondering about that -- the story is so engaging, and Camp Greyhound sounds so horrifying, but there was something off in how clean, how wholesome, how great Zeitoun came off as. Granted, you..."Yep! The entire tale was utterly captivating, partly because much of the nation saw news coverage on Katrina's ugly impact, but also because Eggers is a gifted writer. That bothersome, doubting little worm gnawing on the edge of believability was a good instinct, Abby. I wanted to swallow this hook, line, and sinker, and had this man not been so notoriously known in Uptown New Orleans, I'd have counted him as a hero.
Just recently, one of my book groups read a historical novel "based on actual events" and inspired by interviews with a (still living, bless his heart!) Italian veteran of WWII. While the gentleman truly made some risky treks to escort refugees over the Alps to safety, his heroic exploits were so ricidulously overdone by the writer that the book - which set out to honor this real gent - ended up as a parody of Forrest Gump.
Its a testament to Eggers' skill that Zeitoun came out smelling like roses instead.
How could the author have written an entire book about the Zeitouns without talking to at least some of the neighbours? And since you said that people around there know about their reputations, well then... seems like the writer was intentionally glossing things over.
Zak wrote: "How could the author have written an entire book about the Zeitouns without talking to at least some of the neighbours? And since you said that people around there know about their reputations, wel..."In a normal world, your points make sense, Zak. It was like a war zone here for a very long time after the hurricane - imagine 7 dams bursting in one city. There was no power for months on end. Debris higher than where the houses had been in certain areas. More than half the population left the city to stay in outlying suburbs, in different cities. Businesses shut down for months.
I think the author was very well intentioned and also outraged on what he considered a case of ethnic profiling - research could not have been easily done but yes - he could have looked into things more closely. Another poster said that the writer caught flak for an earlier novel where he practically boasted that he had done zero research for it - it was fiction, after all. Perhaps he was still in that mindset.
This book, in the opinion of me and many of our local friends who read it, is that the whole thing is an erroneous urban myth. If it were a work of fiction, I'd have loved it - Eggers has great talent. But nonfiction? No way.
OMG. This is horrendous. Thank you for the information, LeAnne. I removed the book from my TBR.
Wow. Thanks for your review, LeAnne. I've read other books by this author. Loved one. So I might have tried this one.
Caroline wrote: "OMG. This is horrendous. Thank you for the information, LeAnne. I removed the book from my TBR."Well, it DOES read really well. A library copy might be an option that doesn't feed cash into the Z funds...although it may have had its income stream from sales changed in light of things that revealed themselves over time. No clue, but Eggers is a good writer.
Lisa wrote: "Wow. Thanks for your review, LeAnne. I've read other books by this author. Loved one. So I might have tried this one."He is a lovely writer, and had I not known this family personally would have been incensed at how the protagonist was treated. If you go in thinking of it as fiction, it might be enjoyable.
LeAnne wrote: "He is a lovely writer, and had I not known this family personally would have been incensed at how the protagonist was treated. If you go in thinking of it as fiction, it might be enjoyable."Thanks, LeAnne, but I think I'll skip this one. Too many other better books.
In an era where people like Jayson Blair, Janet Cooke and Stephen Glass are paid Journalist who fabricate stories rather than work to address real issues, I am truly disappointed that this is being billed as based on a true story. I have read several of Eggers books and I won't be reading any in the future. Thank you for taking the risk of speaking the truth about the characters and sharing your personal experience.
Kathryn wrote: "In an era where people like Jayson Blair, Janet Cooke and Stephen Glass are paid Journalist who fabricate stories rather than work to address real issues, I am truly disappointed that this is being..."I appreciate your kind words here, Kathryn. It's never easy to write a somewhat negative review, but as a New Orleanian it felt especially right to let people know that this mistreated hero lived primarily in the mind of Mr. Eggers, not in the real world.
Thank you for this review! I just read the book and it was very powerful to me. I also read what happened to Zeitoun and how he tried to kill his wife. It definitely doesn't add up with the peaceful life they had in the novel. Also, the racism of the family was also unknown to me, but not surprising. I will say however, that I thought the book was a very educating glimpse into the intersection of climate refugees and racism towards Muslims in the US. Great Review btw!!
Lora wrote: "Wow!"Crazy, huh? The book is beautifully done and casts Zeitoun as some beleaguered good Samaritan, preyed upon just because of his national origin. Total wolf in sheep's clothing.
Yikes. Guess I should have read this before writing my review...
Colleen wrote: "Yikes. Guess I should have read this before writing my review..."Don't feel bad. We all want to root for the underdog, and the author writes the story beautifully. He got conned. His readers got conned. Unless people are locals from uptown New Orleans and of a certain age group, they're going to buy every word as truth.
Know what's funny? Not sure if you know who Harry Connick Jr, is, but his dad was the district attorney for Orleans Parish for about 30 years. The Zeitouns painted his house maybe a year or so before they came to mine, and they were ingenious enough to do an absolutely gorgeous job of it, very timely, very clean work space, and charge a super competitive rate. Mr. Connick allowed them to take a photo of his home to include in their scrap book and to include the information that he was a satisfied customer. THAT is how clever the Zeitoun cousins were. Of course, after that, everybody trusted them.
There was a couple of ladies who owned a giant old house in the lower Garden District and ran it as a B&B. They paid the entire fee to sand, repair, caulk, and paint the massive old place up front. Months later, the Zeitouns had done zero work, and they ended up filing with the Better Business Bureau.
In your wildest dreams. would you EVER pay a contractor the entire fee up front? These guys were smooth operators.
