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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Novel Written by Saddam to Be Published |
| 2005-06-24 |
| I know we've all been waiting breathlessly for this... 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. ...and then we'll just wait for the money to roll in. "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. No kidding? 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. Including killing our husbands when they "act up"... "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." Thank you, Raghead. I will think of you as I suck down Doritos in my prison cell! 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. In short, it sucks. I can say that now. 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. But will I get Doritos? 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. Well that's obviously not the autobiography... "The Fortified Citadel" described the rise to power of Saddam's Baath Party. Kill him. Kill him too. Kill him also. And kill him too. The End. "Men and a City" is widely viewed as a thinly veiled autobiography, presenting him as powerful and heroic. Sounds... kinda gay. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #6 Please excuse my tardiness R-Burgers, I'm posting from Korea. BIG time difference. |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2005-06-24 23:09 |
| #5 PlanetDan - the Version I got off the internet started off something like "It was late one night, past midnight; too dark to play hockey, or fly a kite..." |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2005-06-24 23:06 |
| #4 I hear it starts off: It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times. . . . |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-06-24 20:20 |
| #3 ROFLMAO! Mike! World Class! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-24 13:42 |
| #2 "The mother of all fourth novels." -- Kofi Annan, UN Daily "Reads like an evening with my boyfriend." -- Andrew Sullivan, Women's Underwear Daily "It's like, got lots of big words an' stuff. I couldn't finish it." -- Paris Hilton "When I served in Vietnam, on a Swift boat, with my band of brothers, in Vietnam--did I mention Vietnam?--we had paperback novels, there in Vietnam, but they weren't as good as this one." -- John F. Kerry, Congressional Record "It reads like something written by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the work of one of my biggest . . . hey, whaddaya mean 'shut up,' Nancy? You called me 'blabbermouth!' That's not nice!" -- Richard Durbin, C-SPAN "Yeeeaaaaggggghh!" -- Howard Dean, DNC Reviews |
| Posted by: Mike 2005-06-24 13:08 |
| #1 This is one of Sammy's bodice-rippers, ain't it? Thought so. Carry on. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-06-24 12:17 |