18. Iraqi Critics’ Reaction to Saddam Hussein’s Novel Was Unsurprising
Saddam Hussein was not exactly what one would call a subtle writer. Zabibah and the King was intended as a ham-fisted allegory, with the hints driven home as if by a sledgehammer. Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The husband represents the US. The assault represents America’s ouster of Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, and is dated January 17th – the same date as the commencement of Operation Desert Storm. The powerful and heroic King Hussein represents Saddam Hussein.
Unsurprisingly, no Iraqi critic dared criticize a novel that, despite a token effort at a pseudonym, everybody knew was written by the country’s brutal dictator. They lauded Zabibah and the King to the skies, showered it with praise, and declared that it was a world-class literary breakthrough. The novel became a domestic best seller, and over a million copies flew off the shelves. Saddam’s sycophants in the Iraqi Ministry of Information turned the novel into a twenty-part television series, that aired on and was frequently rerun on Iraqi TV. A musical was produced as well.
