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Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel, by Ahmed Saadawi
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Review
“This profound, gripping book refreshes a centuries-old scary story into today’s landscape.” —The Today Show“The book I can’t get out of my head? The haunting, brutal and funny Frankenstein in Baghdad.” —John Schwartz, The New York Times Book Review“In the 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, her monster has turned up in countless variations—but few of them have been as wild or politically pointed as the monster in Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad.” —Gregory Cowles, The New York Times“Intense and surreal . . . Assured and hallucinatory . . . funny and horrifying in a near-perfect admixture . . . Saadawi blends the unearthly, the horrific and the mundane to terrific effect. . . . There’s a freshness to both his voice and vision. . . . What happened in Iraq was a spiritual disaster, and this brave and ingenious novel takes that idea and uncorks all its possible meanings.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Brilliant . . . Crisp, moving, and mordantly humorous . . . Like Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-Five, Frankenstein in Baghdad plays the absurd normality of war for dark humor. . . . The monster is a powerful metaphor, but the real reason the novel works is because Saadawi writes with a rare combination of generosity, cruelty, and black humor. He has a journalist’s eye for detail and a cartoonist’s sense of satire.” —Roy Scranton, The New Republic“Powerful . . . Surreal . . . Darkly humorous . . . Cleverly conscripts a macabre character from a venerable literary work in the service of a modern-day cautionary fable . . . An excellent English translation.” —Chicago Tribune“A remarkable achievement, and one that, regrettably, is unlikely ever to lose its urgent relevancy . . . Surreal, visceral and mordant . . . An acute portrait of Middle Eastern sectarianism and geopolitical ineptitude, an absurdist morality fable, and a horror fantasy . . . Strange, violent, and wickedly funny.” —Sarah Perry, The Guardian“Come for the fascinating plot; stay for the dark humor and devastating view of humanity.” —The Washington Post“Fascinating . . . Strikes a feverish balance between fantasy and hard realism . . . The fabric of the city’s neighborhoods couldn’t be more sharply etched. . . . Saadawi . . . delivers a vision of his war-mangled city that’s hard to forget.” —The Seattle Times“The [Frankenstein] conceit proves surprisingly apt. . . . Saadawi’s novel . . . is more than an extended metaphor for the interminable carnage in Iraq and the precarious nature of its body politic. It also intimately depicts the lives of those affected by the conflict [and] offer[s] a glimpse into the day-to-day experiences of a society fractured by bloodshed.” —The Economist“What do you get if you cross the spiritualism of Lincoln in the Bardo with the sci-fi-cum-action-movie oomph of The Terminator? Possibly something resembling Frankenstein in Baghdad. . . . It’s as much of a crossbreed as its ghoulish hero—part thriller, part horror, part social commentary. . . . Saadawi . . . captures the atmosphere of war-torn Baghdad with the swiftest of penstrokes, and picks out details that make the reader feel, and even taste, the aftermath of the explosions that pepper the book.” —Financial Times“Hallucinatory and hilarious . . . Surprising, even jolting . . . Saadawi’s satirical bite . . . means that any jokes come garlanded with darkness. Laughter often catches in the throat. . . . Jonathan Wright’s elegant and witty translation . . . reaches for and attains bracing pathos. . . . This remarkable book [is] funny and disturbing in equal measure.” —The Observer (London)“Sinister, satirical, ferociously comic but oddly moving . . . Nightmarish, but horridly hilarious . . . A fable that puts a cherished Romantic myth to urgent new use . . . In their bicentenary year, Mary Shelley’s scientist and his creature will take plenty of contemporary spins. Surely, no updated journey will be more necessary than Saadawi’s. . . . Frankenstein’s monster is more frightening than ever.” —The Spectator (London)“Darkly delightful . . . A lively portrait of a teeming, cosmopolitan Baghdad . . . The humor is sometimes laugh-out-loud. . . . Jonathan Wright’s superb translation conveys the novel’s contemporary, urban edge as well as its light and witty style. . . . [The] novel moves as much as it entertains.” —New Statesman“Very readable and darkly humorous; it has well-observed characters . . . The translation by Jonathan Wright is first rate.” —The Times Literary Supplement “Ingenious . . . Hugely engaging and richly satisfying . . . Tells a vital story in a masterful way . . . One of those rare novels that manages to juggle literary ambition, political and social metaphor, and pure page-turning readability.” —The National“One of the best novels to emerge from the catastrophe of the Iraq War . . . Extraordinary . . . Earthy and vibrant . . . There are striking continuities with the original Shelley novel. . . . Saadawi’s monster in Frankenstein in Baghdad is a hybrid creature for our times. It is a desperate marker of the brutal violence that has taken countless lives in the wars unleashed in the region. . . . But Frankenstein in Baghdad is also a sign that the imagination can still survive in these conditions, literary works flowering in the cracks of the rubble.” —Roger Luckhurst, Los Angeles Review of Books“Powerful . . . Saadawi and his fellow Iraqi writers depict Baghdad as a space where the absurd is not a function of Islam or the ‘backward’ Arab mind but rather the product of the United States’s imperialist encroachment.” —Mark Firmani, Los Angeles Review of Books“Exemplary . . . Comedic and irreverent . . . A glimpse of Iraq that can’t be gleaned from traditional war reporting or policy memos . . . Offers both an escape from the reality of present-day Iraq as well as a new way of reflecting on it . . . Saadawi has sutured together a dystopian universe that confronts the horrors of reality, rather than offering an escape from it and, in doing so, has provided American science fiction lovers—readers and writers alike—a new and refreshing template for dystopian fiction fitting to our time.” —Sam Metz, Los Angeles Review of Books“Illuminating and arresting . . . Extremely funny.” —Public Books“Suffused with macabre humor, this novel captures the bizarre reality of life that is contemporary Baghdad. . . . An important piece of political literature to emerge out of Iraq.” —The Week“The war novel after Iraq is alive in America, and an Iraqi perspective here gives a shot of high voltage to a reanimated discussion. . . . Saadawi’s sentences are smooth, crisp, and McCarthy-esque; translator Jonathan Wright does an incredible job of bringing the haunting, brooding rhythm of the words to life.” —Rain Taxi“A surreal, funny and horrifying look at people trying to deal with the absurdities of war.” —The Virginian-Pilot “This adroitly written work of literary fiction ingeniously blends absurdist horror with a mordantly funny satire about life in a war-torn city. . . . Seamlessly moves between the surreal and the intensely real. Extraordinary in its scope and inventiveness.” —The Irish Times“A haunting allegory of man’s savagery against man and one of the most essential books to come out of the Iraq War, or any war.” —Elliot Ackerman, National Book Award finalist for Dark at the Crossing“Frankenstein in Baghdad is a quietly ferocious thing, a dark, imaginative dissection of the cyclical absurdity of violence. From the terrible aftermath of one of the most destructive, unnecessary wars in modern history, Ahmed Saadawi has crafted a novel that will be remembered.” —Omar El Akkad, author of American War“This gripping, darkly humorous fable of post-invasion Baghdad is a profound exploration of the terrible logic of violence and vengeance.” —Phil Klay, bestselling author and National Book Award winner for Redeployment“An extraordinary piece of work. With uncompromising focus, Ahmed Saadawi takes you right to the wounded heart of war’s absurd and tragic wreckage. It is a devastating but essential read, one that I am sure I will return to again and again.” —Kevin Powers, bestselling author and National Book Award finalist for The Yellow Birds“Frankenstein in Baghdad courageously confronts the bizarre events set in motion by the violence after the American occupation of Iraq. . . . It’s a painful and powerful story that goes beyond the limits of reality, in an attempt to reach the essence of the cruelty of war. . . . [Saadawi’s] lively style is reminiscent of horror movies and detective stories, with touches of black comedy.” —Hassan Blasim, author of The Corpse Exhibition“Horrifically funny and allegorically resonant, Frankenstein in Baghdad captures very well the mood of macabre violence that gripped Baghdad in 2005.” —Brian Van Reet, author of Spoils“Weaving as seamlessly from parable to realism as a needle weaves a tapestry, Frankenstein in Baghdad perfectly captures the absurdity, mayhem, and tragedy of war. Mahmoud the hapless journalist, Hadi the unwitting Dr. Frankenstein, and Elishva the mother are all profoundly human and appealing, our guides to a rare glimpse of the human beings on the receiving ends of our wars. Funny, bizarre, and captivating, this is a must-read for all Americans who are curious to see the war at last from an Iraqi point of view.” —Helen Benedict, author of Wolf Season and Sand Queen“Ahmed Saadawi has divined a dark, rapturous metaphor within the landscape of post-9/11 Iraq and, channeling Gabriel García Márquez, has written a love song to the humanity that endures even amid the ruins of war.” —Lea Carpenter, author of Eleven Days“A remarkable book from the heart of terror, where violence dissolves the divide between reality and unreality.” —Thomas McGuane, author of Crow Fair and Cloudbursts“A haunting allegory for sectarian violence.” —Alexandra Alter, The New York Times “Matter-of-factly, Saadawi sets out a reality—Baghdad in 2005—so gothic in its details . . . that, when the novel makes a turn to the supernatural, it barely shocks.” —The New Yorker “Expertly told . . . A significant addition to contemporary Arabic fiction.” —Judges’ citation, International Prize for Arabic Fiction“This haunting novel brazenly confronts the violence visited upon [Iraq] by those who did not call it home. A startling way to teach an old lesson: an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” —Kirkus Reviews“A harrowing and affecting look at the day-to-day life of war-torn Iraq.” —Publishers Weekly“Highly recommended . . . An incisive look at local life in Baghdad in 2005. The multiple narratives . . . intersect to form a complex whole.” —Library Journal“Captures the chaos, absurdity, and inhumanity of the recent Iraq War, leaving readers, like the characters, stunned.” —Helen Benedict, Lit Hub“A scathing critique of the U.S. invasion by way of front-row seats to its disastrous, lingering consequences.” —Zahra Hankir, Lit Hub“There is no shortage of wonderful, literate Frankenstein reimaginings . . . but few so viscerally mine Shelley’s story for its metaphoric riches. . . . In graceful, economical prose, Saadawi places us in a city of ghosts, where missing people return all the time, justice is fleeting, and even good intentions rot. . . . A haunting and startling mix of horror, mystery, and tragedy.” —Booklist, starred review“As with any great literary work, this novel doesn’t just tell a story. Rather, it unfolds across multiple dimensions, each layer peeling back to reveal something new. . . . Exquisitely translated by Jonathan Wright, this novel breaks through the superficial news stories and helps us see more clearly what the American invasion has wrought, how violence begets violence, and how tenuous is the line between innocence and guilt. Brilliant and horrifying, Frankenstein in Baghdad is essential reading.” —World Literature Today“A poignant and painful portrayal of a country whose ghosts have yet to be exorcised.” —Literary Review
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About the Author
Ahmed Saadawi is an Iraqi novelist, poet, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. He is the first Iraqi to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction; he won in 2014 for Frankenstein in Baghdad, which also won France’s Grand Prize for Fantasy. In 2010 he was selected for Beirut39, as one of the 39 best Arab authors under the age of 39. He was born in 1973 in Baghdad, where he still lives.
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Product details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Translation edition (January 23, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780143128793
ISBN-13: 978-0143128793
ASIN: 0143128795
Product Dimensions:
5 x 0.7 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.9 out of 5 stars
39 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#19,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I have never given a 1-star rating until now. But this is truly one of the worst books I have ever read and the reasons for this are numerous. The author deserves this low rating for having wasted 8+ hours of my life.Note: I only bought and read this book because it was my book club's pick for the month. Even then, I barely made it through the entire book. I was honestly tempted on several occasions to abandon it completely - it was that painful. The first 50% is akin to plodding through mud mixed with molasses. Numerous times I lost concentration and had to reread many sentences. Like I said - it was painful. It somewhat picks up the pace in the second half, but it is then that you notice how truly bad it is, as the style and plot (or lack thereof) become more noticeable.Firstly, the writing is beyond poor. It has absolutely no soul. It is flat, simplistic, with staccato-like sentences. This "novel" reads more like an accountant's summary report than a novel. Not being able to read it in the original Arab language, I cannot say whether this is due to a (poor) translation or the author's actual lack of any writing talent. But either way, the phrasing is awkward, almost on par with a Google Translate experience. It is full of abrupt cuts and poor transitions. As an example: the protagonist enters a room in a brothel, and in the next paragraph he exits the brothel; no description, no plot development. Another example: he is riding in a car with another character (Nawal), and in the next paragraph, they are in a hotel cafeteria, with no transition or explanation how they got there.Secondly, and more unforgivably, the plot structure itself is a mess. The story D-R-A-G-S in the beginning half, then whisks by in the final 20%, making you feel the author himself got bored with the whole mess, or else was on a tight deadline to his publisher, and just wanted, or was forced, to wind everything up asap. In fact, he was in such a hurry to wrap things up, that he forgot all about the wooden panel that was found behind the Virgin statue at Hadi's place – a plot point touched upon several times, leading one to believe it was something of significance – but I guess not.The author has no notion of time structure: a thread of narrative rambles on into the future, then in the next paragraph/section (again without any transition) jumps back to some previous point.Thirdly, there is zero character development. I've read books where robots had more personality than any of the characters in this book. And purely as an observation, the only women in the book continue to perpetuate the female Arab stereotypes: the stupid, rambling old woman, the whore, the conniving yet guileless businesswoman-whore. Although to be fair, the men are not much more fleshed out…The (I assume) main character, Mahmoud al-Sawadi, would appear to be the alter-ego of the author, Ahmed Saadawi (Mahmoud being a derivation of Ahmed and Sawadi being almost an anagram of Saadawi), and as such gets the most character development. But even then, he remains a bland, unformed creature – not much different at the end of the book from what he was at the beginning.I totally fail to see how it won any, let alone top awards. The only even remotely plausible explanation I can think of is that someone had to have a “token†Arab work in their repertoire, because there can be no other explanation.
A must read. The surreal elements used to convey the politically relevant commentary uniquely brings to light the complexity of a region often viewed stereotypically. This book will leave you thinking. It will leave you wanting someone else you know to read it, so that you can verbally process the profound journey Saadawi took you on.Remember, this novel is translated and a lot is lost in translation. This should not be viewed as the fault of an author or a translator, but rather viewed with appreciation that’s English audiences have a small gateway into Iraqi and Arabic literature. For people less familiar with Iraqi names and those who struggle with numerous characters, there is a handy character list provided at the beginning of the novel with a brief description of who they are!
A wonderfully written and consciously disturbing allegory of violent post Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Mary Shelley’s Creature here stands for global revenge and serves as both the initiator and the victim of on going terror. Victor Frankenstein is equated with his creation and is thus forced to take responsibility. Still, this book is far from the quote from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein it opens with; in itself it forms an innovative, magical-realistic tale.
It has been almost 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote the original classic. Yet, here we stand another retelling of the story of Frankenstein's monster. Mixing the Shelley tale with life in war-torn Iraq makes for a fascinating concept to discuss. Although Saadwai's book starts off slow. It picks up and has really disturbing parts.
For a good time start on page 143. That's when the story actually starts. What comes before is a languid, meandering prologue that will make your eyes roll back in your head. The story comes together when Frankenstein's narrative starts. Up to that point, it's just a mess of what feel like random characters, some of whom are relevant at the end of the story, some of whom are not.There are craft issues with head hopping and weird, confusing scene transitions that don't clear up until right around page 143. It's like the first half or so is a first draft and the last half or so is a tightly plotted spec fic thriller. The book has two personalities that way. I like the idea suggested in another review that the story is meant to mirror Frankenstein's haphazard construction...but that's a really romanticized way to look at bad story structure.Anyway, the main thrust of the story is to question who is innocent and who is guilty through the lens of a Frankenstein. Who really is responsible for violence? Does anyone have clean hands? At the end there's an interesting conceptual switcheroo of who's good and who's evil.I'm glad I read the book,it has interesting ideas, but it was a long, punishing slog. Still, the story is an important piece of speculative fiction, although it might be better to wait for the movie...which I hope there will be one. A film would allow for the opportunity to correct issues with story pacing and clarity and let it shine the way it should because it really is a gem.
I was really intrigued to read this, and thought it had an absolutely amazing concept. It does, but then it doesn't really seem to know what to do with it. It splits its POV through multiple characters, seemingly mostly for the sake of taking up space. It does a lot of interesting worldbuilding, but then doesn't really fulfill its own promise.
A Baghdad junk dealer sews together pieces and parts of the innocent dead to create a monster. The monster know as Whatsitsname exacts revenge on the perpetrators of the parts he is made of. But, the junk dealer has a problem of fabrication and credibility. So, is the monster real or urban legend?
This novel was not as interesting as I expected given that is is a finalist for the Booker Prize. Saadawi has an intereting idea but the book itself did not hold my attention. It's an ok read.
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