In Frankenstein of Baghdad, Ahmed Sadawi sets the story theme at the time of the American occupation of Iraq in 2005. Those times are remembered in particular for the lack of security that gave rise to daily bombings and armed religious militias. Sadawi uses this background innovatively to introduce us to his characters that are affected directly or indirectly by this turbulence.
The main character is Hadi al Attag, a used furniture seller who is known for his eccentricity and tattling. He creates a Frankenstein-like monster using different body parts of bombing victims that fill the streets of Baghdad. Once he fixes the last piece (a nose), the spirit of a hotel guard — who is also a bombing victim — sets in the body and gives rise to what Hadi would later call: El Shisma (that literally translates to: whatchamacallit). El-Shisma then becomes the nucleus that binds different characters of the book: the old Christian lady Ilishwa who has been waiting for 20 years for her soldier son to come back, the ambitious reporter Mahmood who convinces Hadi to help him get an interview with El-Shisma, General Suroor who works for a fictional special unit called: “following and stalking” that treats El-Shisma as a potential threat and uses supernatural powers to track him down; and many others.
At the same time, readers are given an insight of El-Shisma: what he thinks, how he feels, why he is trying to change his image from being a cold-blooded killer — that uses his victim’s body parts to replace his falling ones — to a hero that is on a revenge mission in the name of the victims that make up his different body parts. Also, how his status changes from being a lone wolf to a worshipped figure with many followers — who end up clashing and killing each other for various reasons.
The narrative is captivating and is a testimony to a crucial time that modern Iraq was going through. The writer threw in details though minimal, yet were shocking to many of us at the time. For example: the destruction of historical sites that many of us studied about in school and the unforgettable debut of the orange song “Al-Burtuqala” that many considered vulgar and feared the decline of the musical taste of the Arab’s general public.
The novel cleverly sheds light on the complex tapestry of the Arab world where shared heritage, history, language and religion build a formidable culture that only Arabs understand and appreciate. It has a streak of philosophy — especially in the character of El-Shisma — that makes the reader reflect upon human nature and motives.
Sadawi had successfully built characters that are easy to relate to and feel for. The book had won the International Prize of Arabic Fiction in 2014 and was a Man Booker International Prize Finalist. It was described by the New York Times as: “Brave and Ingenious”. Personally, I consider it to be one of the best books I’ve read this year. However, when checking the reviews of the English version there was a mix of reactions.
Most readers seemed to have loved the concept and enjoyed the book, yet complained of poor translation (one reader described it as being taken directly from Google translate). To many, the understanding of the narrative and the plot were “lost in translation”. It’s a sad loss for a book that was written in an impressive level of classical Arabic language — that many new and young writers fail to master these days. I recommend the book (if you have the time and patience) to discover the Arabic intake of the much-loved classical figure of Frankenstein.
(Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of ‘The World According to Bahja’. rashabooks@yahoo.com)
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