Frankenstein in Baghdad

The novel centers on the Creature, the Frankenstein’s-monster-like creation of Hadi; the Creature is alternately known as Criminal X (by the government and the media), the Whatsitsname (by Hadi), the One Who Has No Name (by Majid and his astrologers), and Daniel (by Elishva, who believes that the Creature is her son returned). The Creature is born of violent, untimely death—it is initially Hasib Mohamed Jaafar’s soul that enters the patchwork body since the explosion has rendered his soul bodiless, and the Creature understands his mission in similar terms, as needing to avenge the deaths of the body parts out of which he is made.

However, the Creature’s mission is complicated as the novel progresses. What began as a fundamentally good-and-evil approach becomes more mixed as he begins to understand people as complicated—not only as innocent or criminal, but that all people are some mix of the two, including himself. Moreover, he feels he is misunderstood by nearly everyone: The people whom he believes he is serving fear and hate him, and even his followers all see in him only what they want to see, creating a dispute that ends in massive bloodshed. It is probably accurate that the Creature symbolizes a turbulent, factionalized Baghdad; less easy is figuring out which parts of him represent what.