A Canoe on the Cover
At first, I had planned to show up to the first day of class with my canoe. You see, we had read the book Zeitoun for summer reading. I think it's the best summer reading book at the college in the five years I've been teaching there. But then again, as I told my students, that may have partly to do with the prominent role that the canoe played in the book. A secondhand canoe, no less. A little bit like the Old Town 16-footer that we bought from our former landlady.
I didn't take my canoe to class. It was raining this morning heavily and the forecast said it could rain into the afternoon, so I thought the canoe wasn't such a good idea after all. So I just brought paddles.
I read a good deal of Zeitoun in Canada, lying on one of the old cots on the front porch. I can't think of a better reading perch. I was explaining to one of the other adjuncts that what really sticks with me is the image of Zeitoun paddling through the flooded city of New Orleans in the days after Katrina, hearing people call out from their houses and bringing meat to feed the neighborhood dogs who were left behind. The city is strangely quiet and serene and he has a sense of purpose. This is the image depicted on the cover of the book.
Of course, the waters of the book have been troubled by the recent allegations against its main character, Abdulrahaman Zeitoun. He has been accused of domestic abuse and conspiring to murder his wife. But I'm not sure that these allegations take away from the essential power of the book, and in fact, I think they fuel some interesting discussion about how much it matters to the book that he is a virtuous character.
I didn't take my canoe to class. It was raining this morning heavily and the forecast said it could rain into the afternoon, so I thought the canoe wasn't such a good idea after all. So I just brought paddles.
I read a good deal of Zeitoun in Canada, lying on one of the old cots on the front porch. I can't think of a better reading perch. I was explaining to one of the other adjuncts that what really sticks with me is the image of Zeitoun paddling through the flooded city of New Orleans in the days after Katrina, hearing people call out from their houses and bringing meat to feed the neighborhood dogs who were left behind. The city is strangely quiet and serene and he has a sense of purpose. This is the image depicted on the cover of the book.
Of course, the waters of the book have been troubled by the recent allegations against its main character, Abdulrahaman Zeitoun. He has been accused of domestic abuse and conspiring to murder his wife. But I'm not sure that these allegations take away from the essential power of the book, and in fact, I think they fuel some interesting discussion about how much it matters to the book that he is a virtuous character.