Unrealistically Depicted Human All Too Human

“Kathy Zeitoun said she considers Eggers’ book a faithful and accurate portrait of the couple’s shared ordeal during Katrina. But she believes she must publicly shed light on her ex-husband’s violent side, which she says has emerged in recent years. ‘I’m not going to be quiet about it anymore because being quiet puts him in a position to do it again,’ she said.”
 — Well, this is very sad. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the protagonist of Dave Eggers’ account of Hurricane Katrina and the atrocious government response that followed, is in jail for assaulting his wife. Zeitoun is beautifully written, and gives an invaluable look at a city in the wake of natural disaster, but it bothered me very much in its depiction of its eponymous hero as a flawless human being. [via]