When she wrote "Frankenstein" during the 19th century, Mary Shelley turned a story of reanimation into a metaphor for death and playing god. With plenty of emotional peril thrown in, her story ended up becoming one of the cornerstones of literary history and presented a perspective of how one deals with complicated themes of the afterlife. Many have taken the subject and spun it in a variety of ways, but few have found a hook quite like Ahmed Saadawi, whose "Frankenstein in Baghdad" is not a direct update, but one whose existence feels like it exists in the shadow of Shelley's book. As a commentary on war and imperialism, it takes the ideas of decapitated bodies and makes them hold a deeper, more provocative meaning, and creates a story that makes a halfway compelling exploration of a complicated, decades-long debacle.
For most of the 21st century, the Middle East has been home to a variety of conflict both from afar and at home. The sense of danger is often a daily occurrence and many live in constant worry that they'll end up victims to some injury. That is the world that Saadawi is existing within, managing to quickly depict a world where bombs decapitate bodies, mosques are protective grounds, and the media is doing everything it can to spin a story to their benefit. Or more specifically, those that have more power and sway over them, helping to shape the narrative as to what holds value in this strange, uncertain world. Who is allowed to be more than another casualty?
Because that's the thing. Those who have the unfortunate reality of being killed are turned into limbs that become anonymous. Nobody knows whose body belongs to who and, as a result, makes the grieving process more difficult. However, when the bodies are stitched together into a macabre villain who finishes a series of vendettas, Saadawi begins asking difficult questions that are much more interesting. The most specific is who the bad guy in this war is and how does the media depict that? The title isn't so much a reference to the plot being similar, but the way that the media tries to simplify the controversy in a marketable way, making it easier to understand when it's far from that. Nobody really understands what it is, but it comes to be both a hero and villain based on its target.
Like the best of fiction, very little of it feels convenient and requires interpretation. There's additional plots around supporting characters trying to find a world beyond the madness. Plenty of themes like spirituality inform how these moments play out, posing threats with ambiguous morality. While many would use this in a lazy way, this is an example of how a war that up until 2021 had permanently changed the landscape. So much of their identity is informed by that presence and rule. The danger is felt on the page and creates a compelling vision of what life actually is like. It's only through fiction and horror that Baghdad's true weight begins to be felt, giving personalized emotion and finding profundity in allegories that pop with life.
"Frankenstein in Baghdad" is a worthwhile read, though don't go in expecting it to be a direct adaptation of Shelley. If it's anything, it's a look into modern Middle Eastern politics that holds a lot of creative weight. Not every answer is convenient, but that's more reflective of the situation that has largely remained problematic for decades. Whole generations haven't known a life outside of this chaos, and it makes sense that Saadawi would emphasize that. Much like the titular character, there's an effort to try and stitch an identity together that feels constantly blown apart, becoming unrecognizable. How does one stay stable long enough? There's a lot to the answer, so prepare for a perspective that challenges the war from an angle that has rarely been considered and, as a result, makes for a rewarding read.
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