Spring Break
New 'Elvis is Titanic' memoir drowns reader in repetition
Chris Curtis
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Entertainment
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09/27/07 - "Elvis is Titanic" is the memoir of a young academic who traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan early in 2005 with the risky aim of teaching intercultural understanding through American history.
Allowed to teach his chosen subject at Salahaddin University in Arbil on the condition that he also teach courses in English, Ian Klaus tackles with enthusiasm the challenge of instructing young men and women raised under a hostile and oppressive regime.
While it is important to note that the Kurds differ from the general Iraqi population in their relative support of the American occupation, the author, nevertheless, could be expected to have little in common with his students.
It is this clash of cultures that Klaus counts on to generate interest in his book; and, in some instances, he is successful. The numerous classroom anecdotes are genuinely interesting as illustrations of the cultural divide between America and the country it has "liberated."
Further, Klaus is capable of writing with wit and style when he is drawing on firsthand experience. Unfortunately, however, much of the book seems to be less a product of actual experience than of scholarly theorizing.
Klaus frequently cites earlier observers of the Middle East and often quotes directly and at length from historical and literary figures.
This reliance on the ideas and observations of others lends Klaus' memoir the scholarly air of an elaborate essay.
To add to his flaws, Klaus is prone to repetition when describing students and others with whom he comes in contact. Yet another small failing is his irritating habit of name- dropping, several pages for instance which amount to, "By the way, did I mention that I'm dating Bill Clinton's daughter?"
In addition to the weaknesses of the main body of the book, much of the first part is given over to a summary and interpretation of Iraqi politics and the economics of the local oil trade, which, to those who have kept abreast of current events, will seem unnecessary.
Allowed to teach his chosen subject at Salahaddin University in Arbil on the condition that he also teach courses in English, Ian Klaus tackles with enthusiasm the challenge of instructing young men and women raised under a hostile and oppressive regime.
While it is important to note that the Kurds differ from the general Iraqi population in their relative support of the American occupation, the author, nevertheless, could be expected to have little in common with his students.
It is this clash of cultures that Klaus counts on to generate interest in his book; and, in some instances, he is successful. The numerous classroom anecdotes are genuinely interesting as illustrations of the cultural divide between America and the country it has "liberated."
Further, Klaus is capable of writing with wit and style when he is drawing on firsthand experience. Unfortunately, however, much of the book seems to be less a product of actual experience than of scholarly theorizing.
Klaus frequently cites earlier observers of the Middle East and often quotes directly and at length from historical and literary figures.
This reliance on the ideas and observations of others lends Klaus' memoir the scholarly air of an elaborate essay.
To add to his flaws, Klaus is prone to repetition when describing students and others with whom he comes in contact. Yet another small failing is his irritating habit of name- dropping, several pages for instance which amount to, "By the way, did I mention that I'm dating Bill Clinton's daughter?"
In addition to the weaknesses of the main body of the book, much of the first part is given over to a summary and interpretation of Iraqi politics and the economics of the local oil trade, which, to those who have kept abreast of current events, will seem unnecessary.
