Book: Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi with translations by Jonathan Wright
Edition: Paperback
Description:
From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.- occupied Baghdad, Hadi -- a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café -- collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city. Hadi soon realizes he's created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive -- first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path. With white-knuckle horror and black humor, Frankenstein in Baghdad captures the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq.
Rating: 4 stars
Review:
In Frankenstein in Baghdad, the story centers around several people who live and work in Baghdad, while the monster, his creation and purpose are filtered throughout the story.
There is something weird and interesting about this story that draws the reader into the lives of several characters as they were dealing with the constant threat of death and destruction that pervades their daily lives. Some of the main characters are: Hadi the junkman who spends most of his time drinking and telling exaggerated stories, Elishva an elderly and senile widow who has not given up hope that her son Daniel (who was reported as dead) will return and the reporter Mahmound al-Sawadi whose ambition and envy of his boss Ali Baher al-Saidi's extravagant life might lead him into trouble.
As for the monster or the Whatsitsname as it's sometimes referred to, it was created by accident. Hadi had stitched together body parts into one body in hopes that the government would see it and acknowledge that the parts had been people and that the parts should still be provided a burial. But the catalyst that brought the monster to life was due to the death of Hasib Mohamed Jaafar, a hotel security guard. His spirit which was unable to return to his body found a home in the stitched together body. But once his spirit inhabited the body, it might have brought it to life but without any of Hasib's memory or consciousness.
And I think he found a purpose for his existence after he met Elishva, whose eyesight was not in the best condition, thought he was her son Daniel. She was telling him about how he (Daniel) had been forcible taken away to join the army for the Iraq-Iran war. After listening to her distraught story, he sought vengeance against the man who had forced Daniel to join the army. The man had been known to force a lot of young men to join the army which resulted in their deaths. From there he went after criminals, murders or sought vengeance for the souls of the body parts that were sewn to make his body.
I couldn't help noticing that as the story progressed, there was this underlining message of the corruption of power and greed. So many of the characters seemed to be dealing with one or both issues such as Faraj the realtor who was trying to acquire Elishva's home. Even at one point it seemed like the monster's purpose had become corrupted and he wasn't following his original mission.
This was an intriguing story with some memorable characters and I found that sometimes a pinch of the unexpected can make a difference in how a story is told. While this is obviously inspired by Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I like that the author put an interesting spin on the classic story with how the monster was created and delving into the lives of the characters.
I'm really glad this book was recommended as a book club pick because it turned out to be fascinating read.
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