Strides made by the Iraqi insurgency added to the momentum, she said, and the banning of the book added to its cachet.
The government was made nervous by it.
"We found that publishing the book would hamper Jordanian-Iraqi ties that Jordan is seeking to build," said Ahmad al-Qadah, head of the press and publications department, the local censor. "Jordan rejects having the story published here, and there is no need to raise such issues."
The novel is Saddam's fourth. His first, Zabiba and the King published in 2001, concerns a heroic Saddam-like king, a woman named Zabiba who symbolizes the Iraqi people, and a tyrannical man who represents America -- and rapes Zabiba.
The second, Walled Fortress published not long after, describes a hero who defends Iraq against enemy attackers. And in 2002, he published Men and the City an autobiographical work that seeks to burnish Saddam's nationalistic credentials by describing how his grandfather supposedly fought the Ottoman Empire. One Amman book distributor noted that the books all sold well, but not on the scale of bootlegs of Saddam's latest novel.
Just say no
It has never been established whether Saddam is in fact the author of the books, or whether he secured a ghostwriter. But in the Arab world, where education and the ability to write prose are highly valued, the novels were meant to add to Saddam's image as a grand Arab leader and thinker. Now that he is in prison, the book appears to be an attempt to burnish that image.
Reaction to the book, as well as to recent images of Saddam in court and to photographs of him in his prison cell speak to the
divergent perceptions of the for-mer Iraqi leader in the West and the Arab world.
While Saddam may have been seen as tired and faded in the West, many here seized on his defiance in the face of dramatic international pressure. That an Arab leader would be caught doing his own laundry in prison, meanwhile, only spoke to his carefully crafted image as a normal man.
"They see him as a strong man who intends to return," said Barhouma, the newspaper editor. "Saddam was presented as a sacrifice at a time when no one could say no to America."
Not all Jordanians see it that way. "Some people find a cause and stick to it," said Yacoub al-Khateeb, 25, an accountant, who says Saddam's support largely emanates from older Jordanians who embraced the cause of Arab nationalism. "Go to a university, speak to some educated people, and you'll find Saddam doesn't play much of a role in their lives."
With the fall of his government, and his incarceration, Saddam lost some visibility here, even among supporters. That may be changing.
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