New Novel by Saddam Hussein

[Monte Smith]

Nobel Prize for Literature, anyone? Of course the Jews come off awful rough....


Novel Written by Saddam to Be Published
By SHAFIKA MATTAR, Associated Press Writer
6/24/05

AMMAN, Jordan - Saddam Hussein's family will publish next week a novel written by the ousted Iraqi leader before the U.S.-led war, his daughter said Friday.

"Get Out, Damned One" tells the story of a man called Ezekiel who plots to overthrow a town's sheik but is defeated in his quest by the sheik's daughter and an Arab warrior.

The story is apparently a metaphor for a Zionist-Christian plot against Arabs and Muslims. Ezekiel is meant to symbolize the Jews.

Raghad Saddam Hussein said her father finished the novel March 18, 2003 — a day before the U.S.-led war on Iraq began — and had expressed a wish to publish the book under his name. The three other novels he wrote were simply signed, "Its author."

"It was my father's will to publish this book," Raghad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

An Iraqi artist designed the cover, she said, and a Jordanian company will first publish the book in Arabic and follow with an English edition and a French translation.

Raghad also wrote a dedication to her father on the book's back cover.

"To the beat of the heart, to the eye and to the father of the Iraqis ... to the creator of men and heroes ... to the one who taught us all the great values," she wrote.

"You, who raised our heads high, the heads of the Iraqis, the Arabs and the Muslims ... we present to you our souls ... to the father of the heroes, to my beloved and dear father, with all my respect and glory to you."

Some Arab newspapers published excerpts of the novel last year without permission, the first of which appeared in the London-based Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

Ali Abdel Amir, an Iraqi writer and critic who has read the whole manuscript, said the novel was similar in style to the other three attributed to Saddam.

Abdel Amir said "Get Out, Damned One" describes an Arab leading an army that invades the land of the enemy and topples one of their monumental towers, an apparent reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York by Islamic militants of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Asharq al-Awsat, which published the entire work over several days last year, said the manuscript was found in the Ministry of Culture after Baghdad's fall. It said it had received its copy from Saddam's physician, Alla Bashir, who fled Iraq after the war and was believed to be in Qatar.

The novel opens with a narrator, who bears a resemblance to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim patriarch Abraham, telling cousins Ezekiel, Youssef and Mahmoud that Satan lives in the ruins of Babylon destroyed by the Persians and the Jews.

Ezekiel is portrayed as greedy, ambitious and destructive. Youssef, who symbolizes the Christians, is portrayed as generous and tolerant — at least in the early passages.

"Even if you seize all the property of others, you will suffer all your life," the narrator tells him.

Saddam also has been credited with writing three other books: "Zabibah and the King," "The Fortified Citadel" and "Men and a City."

"Zabibah and the King" tells a story of a leader who sacrifices a luxurious life for the sake of his people.

"The Fortified Citadel" described the rise to power of Saddam's Baath Party.

"Men and a City" is widely viewed as a thinly veiled autobiography, presenting him as powerful and heroic.

Saddam, 68, has been jailed under American control at a U.S. military detention complex near Baghdad airport since his December 2003 capture near his hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

He faces charges before a special war crimes tribunal that include killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds in the northern town of Halabja in 1988, invading Kuwait in 1990, and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991. No trial date has been set. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

[Monte Smith]

Hmm...I wonder how many copies constitutes a "bestseller" in Jordan. Anyone here subscribe to the Amman Review of Books? (I'm just asking, I won't sick the feds on you or anything).

Saddam's novel a bestseller despite ban

By Ibon Villelabeitia

AMMAN, July 1 (Reuters) - Move over Harry Potter. In Amman's downtown bazaars, the bestselling book these days is Saddam Hussein's bootlegged novel "Get out of here, curse you!"

Banned by Jordan on the grounds the 186-page tale of an Arab tribesman who defeats foreign invaders could harm relations between Jordan and Iraq, Saddam's latest novel has become so popular booksellers say they can't keep up with demand.

"We had copies but they sold out after the book was banned," the owner of a kiosk in a busy Amman street told Reuters.

"We are waiting for the book to be published again. Even if it is banned I will ask for copies outside Jordan," said the vendor, who like most of those interviewed asked for his name not to be published.

"I had it before the government banned it but after the ban more people came to look for it," said another vendor, whose shop stands in a narrow alley where old men dressed in white robes fingered beads and drank tea.

"It's a very popular book here."

Saddam, who faces war crimes charges, is a popular figure in some quarters in Jordan, where -- like the ousted dictator -- the large majority of people are Sunni Muslims. There is also a large exile Iraqi community living here.

Portraits of Saddam smiling like a benevolent father figure are sold in some shops in gritty downtown Amman, where most residents are of Palestinian descent, next to pictures of Jordan's King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally.

Images of daily bloodshed in neighbouring Iraq and reports of abuses of detainees at U.S.-run prisons have whipped up anti-American sentiment in the kingdom, where some regard Saddam as an Arab nationalist leader, analysts said.

"There is a lot of unhappiness in Jordan about what is going on in Iraq," said Joost Hiltermann, of the International Crisis Group.

"The images of violence and of Saddam in his underpants have reinforced the notion that the U.S. war is illegal and that Americans are in Iraq to humiliate Arabs."

Government censors can axe books in Jordan, but the ban has played into the hands of Saddam, credited with writing other works including "Zabiba and the King" and "Men and a City."

"You can't ban books in Jordan anymore. We have satellite and Internet," said vendor Hassan Abu Ali. "If I find copies I will sell thousands."

Believed to have been penned before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the book tells the story of Salem, a noble Arab tribesman representing righteousness and Arab nationalism, who defeats his American and Jewish enemies.

The tale describes how Salem unites divided Arab tribes in Iraq to defeat Hisquel, a foreign intruder who represents evil.

"I had it before the government banned it but after the ban more people came to look for it," said another vendor.

Ahhhhh................

Pop culture, it's not just a western phenomenon anymore.

[chuckyd4]

Based on the artwork Saddam collected, I can only imagine how atrocious his "literary" voice must be; throw in an anti-Jewish plot and an overwrought tribute from his daughter, and I for one cannot wait to read this. Particularly if they publish it on Charmin in roll form.