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2000s: A man creates a monster from the rubble of war…
Frankenstein in Baghdad
What you need to know before your trail
From the rubble-strewn streets of US-occupied Baghdad, the scavenger Hadi 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 give them a proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realises he has created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive – first from the guilty, and then from anyone who crosses its path.
Locations
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Baghdad
The novel is a mismash of emotions and shades of darkness, destroyed homes, broken people, and ripped out hearts….body parts which are then collected and stitched together..to create a city which is a monster of its former self.
Frankenstein represents the city as it was, and the city that Baghdad has become. A patchwork of broken promises and stories, reduced to rubble and worse.
The city is one mass of explosions, bombs, raids, killings and fighting of one kind or another.
People here can’t mourn their dead as all they can hope to find is the odd body part. The monster of Frankenstein is the hopes and dreams of all of the dead, of those still living, stitched together to form a soul….like Frankenstein…..or Whatitsname.. to make this even more remote.
This creature then starts to seek revenge for theose whose bodies it’s made from. Violence begets violence. The circle continues?
Booktrailer Review
Well this is a surreal read. If you could read a Picasso painting where the nose is in one place, the mouth upside down and the head in three pieces, then this is that painting. Words appear at odd angles, characters drop in like objects and change position from one chapter to the next. But do you know something? It’s an abstract novel but it does get its message across – that Baghdad has created a community a city, unrecognizable as it was before. People now are reduced to body parts, and their city ruined not to mention their lives and futures.
Reading this does mess with your head. Horror and abstract reasoning make this one memorable or unforgettable read depending on your take of things. It’s a mad science experiment of a novel. Unlike any other. If there is such a thing as Arab Gothic or Arabic Noir than this is it – but was ‘Whatsitsname’ the best name for the monster? It made me think of a childish name rather than the serious soul it represented.
It’s a unique view and insight into Baghdad as well as its heart and soul however.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Frankenstein in Baghdad
Destination: Baghdad Author/Guide: Ahmed Saadawi Departure Time: 2000s
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