by Patrick Ogle
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi is a horror book that isn't really about scares. There is an understated sense of humor here and multiple points to make (some of which I am still sorting out). It modernizes the Frankenstein story and gives it a new purpose. To me this was a book about consequences and about the futility of vengeance but it is about more than that. This book is also a lot more than just a retelling of Frankenstein. In fact it is linked to the original story in only a handful of ways. I leave you to draw those lines for yourself. One theme that kept coming back to me while reading was; who do you trust? Why do you trust them? When you hear many different explanations for something what seems credible?
Frankenstein in Baghdad truly puts you in a place and a time. I have read academic books whose sole focus was to teach about a place and an era that fail in this goal. Saadawi achieves it. This horror book really makes you feel like you are in post-Iraq War Baghdad and gives you a sense of the anxieties faced by actual people there (plus, there is a monster...). I cannot say for certain that this IS what it was like there only that it SEEMS real and that is partly from the details that are outside the plot--where people live, their habits, their dress, what they eat and drink. I think this sort of attention to detail and building up of characters is a key part of making something supernatural really work in a novel or short story.
There is no specific "bad guy" in this book. Some people do sort of bad things (including the monster) but if you are, as many Americans do, waiting for everyone to "get theirs" you will keep waiting. I was thrilled much of what I expected to happen did not happen. I was thrilled that this thriller was like real life. Some people are spared and some people suffer and there is often no rhyme or reason to it. Of course now I am off the track a bit but that is what I'm trying to do writing these things down; I want to get at how a novel makes me feel.
This book gives you some anxiety. It makes you care about even briefly mentioned characters because they seem real, they require empathy. This is a book I am likely to read again later to see what I’ve missed.
This book won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014. It was also a Booker Prize Finalist.
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi is a horror book that isn't really about scares. There is an understated sense of humor here and multiple points to make (some of which I am still sorting out). It modernizes the Frankenstein story and gives it a new purpose. To me this was a book about consequences and about the futility of vengeance but it is about more than that. This book is also a lot more than just a retelling of Frankenstein. In fact it is linked to the original story in only a handful of ways. I leave you to draw those lines for yourself. One theme that kept coming back to me while reading was; who do you trust? Why do you trust them? When you hear many different explanations for something what seems credible?
Frankenstein in Baghdad truly puts you in a place and a time. I have read academic books whose sole focus was to teach about a place and an era that fail in this goal. Saadawi achieves it. This horror book really makes you feel like you are in post-Iraq War Baghdad and gives you a sense of the anxieties faced by actual people there (plus, there is a monster...). I cannot say for certain that this IS what it was like there only that it SEEMS real and that is partly from the details that are outside the plot--where people live, their habits, their dress, what they eat and drink. I think this sort of attention to detail and building up of characters is a key part of making something supernatural really work in a novel or short story.
There is no specific "bad guy" in this book. Some people do sort of bad things (including the monster) but if you are, as many Americans do, waiting for everyone to "get theirs" you will keep waiting. I was thrilled much of what I expected to happen did not happen. I was thrilled that this thriller was like real life. Some people are spared and some people suffer and there is often no rhyme or reason to it. Of course now I am off the track a bit but that is what I'm trying to do writing these things down; I want to get at how a novel makes me feel.
This book gives you some anxiety. It makes you care about even briefly mentioned characters because they seem real, they require empathy. This is a book I am likely to read again later to see what I’ve missed.
This book won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014. It was also a Booker Prize Finalist.
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