Wonderfully dark book. funny in an insane, sad way. Story itself isn’t funny! frankenstein as a concept, a man made from death, works perfectly in war torn iraq. the bodies of victims seeking revenge, the inability to quantify evil and innocence, because the country and city has become enmeshed with violence, despair, hatred. a perfect metaphor, as far as it goes. terrorism is prompted by something, and those evil acts do not exist in a vacuum. those who do evil do not usually wake up and decide to be evil, there is injustice done to them, their family, their loved ones. it’s a cycle of violence creating violence, revenge creating reason to seek revenge. The “normal” people live in the book within the context of the violence, exploit it, suffer from it, ignore it. Complex and beautifully written novel, gripping and easy to read. hard to digest.