It's rare that I read a book twice, but in this was the case. Zeitoun is anything but a gefühlige kitschy depiction of the drama to New Orleans, but excellent narrative work, which comes as a historical novel (after all, Eggers has many stakeholders interviewed for this story in detail). You do not know the authenticity of these events, one would classify the book as a refined mix of political drama, adventure story and family saga. Easily could such a material in the hands of a less talented author drift off into the realm of Hollywood kitsch, in a collection of sentimentality and commercial clichés. Why is this different? Although Dave Eggers used methods of oral history, but they do not tell the sparse prose of reportage, but calmly, precisely, literary sovereign, if you want to call it that - and with many Perspektivwechsen on the major and minor characters of the drama. The political accusation comes without moralizing therefore; indignation grows all out of the story. The people are all three-dimensional, and not function as simple projection beings. The sensitivity, as here the life of a Syrian-American family is shown (also of Muslim background), is impressive. When I got the publisher a review copy (elsewhere is carried to another, much longer review), I again plunged into the world of book one, was very pleased with the translation by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann, and quite quickly again packed from the maelstrom of the book. Literary fast food can not say that because you come for the second reading the cheap effects rapidly on the track. Zeitoun human touch not, it penetrates deep into existential spheres. And tells a simple story basically complex and captivating.
