Word: katrina
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...write a series of books that ranged from the wholly fictional (You Shall Know Our Velocity) to the almost entirely true (What Is the What). Now he has entered new literary territory with a thoroughly researched, completely factual account of one man's struggles during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That man is Abdulrahman Zeitoun (pronounced Zay-tune), a Syrian immigrant who stays in New Orleans after the hurricane hit to look after his property and is arrested on suspicion of looting. Eggers talks to TIME about Zeitoun the book, Zeitoun the man, and why his story is worth telling...
...working with wrongfully convicted men and women in the U.S., and she said that the books out there about exonerated prisoners hadn't told the whole story. So we started a program called Voices of Witness, and the first book we put out was about exonerated prisoners. Then Katrina hit and that became the subject of our second book. We sent volunteers to Houston and Knoxville and New Orleans to interview people about their stories. Zeitoun was one of them...
...first half of the book is heartwarming, though, as Zeitoun paddles around in a canoe saving people. It was unlike any depiction of Katrina I saw on the news when it happened. The media depictions of Katrina were so skewed, and they were aided and abetted by a lot of people on the ground. Everyone painted this picture of a city divulging into utter chaos. Most of these rumors proved unfounded. Neighborhoods experienced the storm differently. The Zeitouns live in Uptown, where for most of the time it was quite peaceful; Zeitoun talks about this incredible quiet, with the only...
What Is the What was a true story marketed as fiction. Zeitoun is listed as nonfiction. Why did you make this one nonfiction, and what was the difference? I started on the book in 2006, only a year after Katrina. Very few of Zeitoun's memories had faded. We made a master calendar - when the water came up, when he was arrested, when he was transferred to the prison. For the most part we were able to independently corroborate all the dates and places and measurements. If Zeitoun said he saw a downed helicopter, I could find out online...
...When people couldn't pay, she didn't charge them. When the clinic wasn't making money, she didn't take a salary for herself. When Hurricane George destroyed the clinic in 1998, she made house calls to all her patients while it was rebuilt. When Hurricane Katrina destroyed it again and left most of her town homeless, she mortgaged her house and maxed out her credit cards to rebuild that clinic for a second time." -President Obama describing Benjamin's dedication to her community (White House transcript, July...