Plot
Dave Eggers' non-fiction book Zeitoun tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his family's struggle to survive as a a family after Hurricane Katrina. Zeitoun and his wife, Kathy, own and run a successful company, Zeitoun A. Painting Contractor LLC, in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. While Kathy takes their four children to her family's house in Baton Rouge when the media begins to warn New Orleans' citizens that Katrina could become a category 5 hurricane by the time it reaches landfall, Zeitoun, believing the storm to be a media exaggeration, decides to stay behind and look after their various properties. Although the actual storm causes minimal damage to his house, breaking a few windows and causing a few leaks in the roof, when New Orleans' levees break, the city floods, and Zeitoun finds his neighborhood (located several feet above much of the city) flooded under fifteen feet of water. Using a used canoe that he bought at a garage sale years earlier, Zeitoun paddles through uptown New Orleans, awestruck by the otherworldly silence and devastation. During his trips through the city, Zeitoun encounters many people, including some friends, who help him aid some elderly citizens trapped in their homes and various dogs left behind by their owners. While Kathy is overcome by worry for her husband remaining in a place that the media has already begun to portray as a city-turned-third-world-state by the destructive storm, Zeitoun feels that it is his purpose to stay in New Orleans and help rebuild the city. Although he is troubled by particular events a few days after the levees flooded the city, such as when National Guardsmen break their promise to aid an older couple leave their flooded home and helicopters hover close to the city just to take pictures of dead bodies in the water without removing them, Zeitoun believes that the media's portrayal of crime and anarchy is an exaggeration.
However, after several days of being able to contact Kathy and his brother in Spain, Zeitoun and three friends are unexpectedly and inexplicably detained by a few National Guardsmen. Although Zeitoun and his companions initially believe they are being arrested only to be forced to evacuate the city, they soon discover that this is not the case. Zeitoun and his friends are denied their basic rights as Americans, and unable to make a phone call to his family, Kathy quickly begins to dread that her husband has been killed by criminals. After one month of unlawful imprisonment and exhausting work from his family, Zeitoun is released from the makeshift jail in New Orleans. While the Hurricane and its aftermath left lasting changes on Zeitoun (he has become much more serious and religious), he continues his work in construction and repair, believing his work to be of utmost importance, especially in post-Katrina New Orleans.
However, after several days of being able to contact Kathy and his brother in Spain, Zeitoun and three friends are unexpectedly and inexplicably detained by a few National Guardsmen. Although Zeitoun and his companions initially believe they are being arrested only to be forced to evacuate the city, they soon discover that this is not the case. Zeitoun and his friends are denied their basic rights as Americans, and unable to make a phone call to his family, Kathy quickly begins to dread that her husband has been killed by criminals. After one month of unlawful imprisonment and exhausting work from his family, Zeitoun is released from the makeshift jail in New Orleans. While the Hurricane and its aftermath left lasting changes on Zeitoun (he has become much more serious and religious), he continues his work in construction and repair, believing his work to be of utmost importance, especially in post-Katrina New Orleans.