A review by emmabeckman
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

3.0

I liked that this was an fascinating take on a classic and that it had the feeling of the oral storytelling tradition that we associate with both Homer and men in coffee bars. I thought it felt very authentic, and I thought the setting and perspective were ones that I haven’t read much of before. They both made it a very interesting book to read, and I feel like the book expanded my perspective and understanding of the culture in Iraq (obviously, this is a fantasy fictional novel, so I recognize that not everything in it is factual, but it presents many different characters of different backgrounds, and it was refreshing to be reminded that Iraq and the Middle East are NOT homogenous zones where every person is exactly the same in every way. Obviously I know that!! But it was nice to be presented with small-scale individual humans. I—and we all—should do more reading of different Middle Eastern own voices stories more often.).

The writing was quite circular, which was not my favorite thing to read. And it was a bit hard to keep everything straight in my mind. I’m glad I read it in the end, since now I really know how to talk about it to others.