Book: Frankenstein in Baghdad
Author: Ahmed Saadawi
Translator: Translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright
Pages: 281 (3-5 hour read)
What motivated me to buy the book?
I took a course, Writing About War: Seeking Narratives in Conflict by professor Thaanassis Cambanis (Thanassi), at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, in Fall 2020. We had to watch a movie, Once Upon a Time in Iraq, in preparation for the class on November 09, 2020.
The movie tries to show the situation in Iraq in one hour 53 minutes. When I watched the movie, I realized the country was in extremely bad shape. The comparison between the situation in Iraq and that in Kashmir came naturally to me. I realized Iraq is far worse than Kashmir. Violence, destruction, bombings, killings, political situation, the living standards of Iraqis seemed to have worsened since the war in Iraq broke out.
That day, the class critiqued the movie. One of the discussion questions was whether the movie had done justice in showing the whole story of a war torn country in almost two hours. The answer was no. One of the critiques was that most part of the movie showed Saddam Hussein’s rule. Less time was devoted to what happened after Saddam Hussein was captured, during his trial and after the announcement of his execution. The rise of sectarian violence, the overtaking of the country by ISIS among others were topics which did not get properly justified in the movie
What is the book about and how does it relate to Kashmir?
What stood out for me in that discussion was whether anyone would even be able to tell a story of a war torn country or a region in one single documentary, a book or an article. The answer, again, was no. However, Thanassi said if I wanted to learn the long-story-cut-short version of what the Iraq war was about, he recommended reading Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad.
After the class, I immediately ordered the book from Amazon and read it.
I loved the book. It has a powerful plot beautifully weaving the characters around it. Malcolm Forbes puts the story of the book in a nutshell, “the novel recreates the carnage and lawlessness of the civil-war ravaged Iraqi capital in 2005, but it raises the stakes and doubles the impact by adding to the usual suspects a man-made killing machine hell-bent on revenge. This is a novel full of tall tales, talking pictures and the walking dead.”
This book made me think about the different tales and narratives that exist in Kashmir. Although Kashmir is not a war zone like Iraq, it has been a conflict-stricken zone for the last 73 years now. Elliot Ackerman, National Book Award finalist for Dark at the Crossing confirms how the story is relevant to any war or a conflict stricken zone. They write, it is “[o]ne of the most essential books to come out of the Iraq War, or any war.”
This book is an interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how narratives shape in the “fog of war,” as Thanassi puts it.
I would give this book ⅘ stars. There are a few questions which are left unanswered. For example, what happened to some of the characters at the end is left for the reader to assume.
Kashmir Commentary 