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A review by jenpaul13
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
3.0
Being able to put a face with unconscionable violent acts makes it feel more immediately real than a vague concept of the person committing those acts. Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad demonstrates the concept of recognizing and identifying the cruelty present within a war-ravaged region.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
In the streets of Baghdad in the aftermath of US occupation, the lives of a mother, junk dealer, and journalist become intertwined by the actions and fate of a Frankenstein-like man that the junk dealer claims to have stitched together from disjointed body parts so they can be recognized as people and given a proper burial. When the composite corpse disappears followed by a series of murders that take place throughout the city, the authorities are driven to seek the entity. The mother is kind to him and talks with him, believing it's her departed son returned to her, while the journalist seeks out the details of his creation and actions to be able to write a story to tantalize the readers of his magazine. As the entity exacts the revenges his body parts demand, he needs to replace them with new ones, criminal or innocent, creating a cycle of killing that seems to have no end.
The story presented an interesting concept of a piecemeal person exacting revenge for heinous acts perpetrated against the persons creating the composite being, with plenty of opportunity to do so in Baghdad's politically unstable streets. This narrative portrays the horrors experienced by ordinary people in Iraq but manages to enlighten without the incredibly heavy reality entirely depressing its readers; however, I did feel that it was difficult for me to connect with the story, leaving me at a slight emotional remove from the events and characters, but this could be, in part, due to translation and my unfamiliarity with some cultural references. With an intriguing cast of characters, whose lives intersect in connection with the sought after entity, the narrative provides the stories of their lives and engenders compassion for the suffering they've endured.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
In the streets of Baghdad in the aftermath of US occupation, the lives of a mother, junk dealer, and journalist become intertwined by the actions and fate of a Frankenstein-like man that the junk dealer claims to have stitched together from disjointed body parts so they can be recognized as people and given a proper burial. When the composite corpse disappears followed by a series of murders that take place throughout the city, the authorities are driven to seek the entity. The mother is kind to him and talks with him, believing it's her departed son returned to her, while the journalist seeks out the details of his creation and actions to be able to write a story to tantalize the readers of his magazine. As the entity exacts the revenges his body parts demand, he needs to replace them with new ones, criminal or innocent, creating a cycle of killing that seems to have no end.
The story presented an interesting concept of a piecemeal person exacting revenge for heinous acts perpetrated against the persons creating the composite being, with plenty of opportunity to do so in Baghdad's politically unstable streets. This narrative portrays the horrors experienced by ordinary people in Iraq but manages to enlighten without the incredibly heavy reality entirely depressing its readers; however, I did feel that it was difficult for me to connect with the story, leaving me at a slight emotional remove from the events and characters, but this could be, in part, due to translation and my unfamiliarity with some cultural references. With an intriguing cast of characters, whose lives intersect in connection with the sought after entity, the narrative provides the stories of their lives and engenders compassion for the suffering they've endured.