Rating: 
Summary: This is no damsel in distress
Review: In this day and age it is hard not to become obsessed with following the news but it is easy to forget that what you read in the newspaper is only half the story. NPR reporter Anne Garrels tells the account of what goes on behind the news as she reports from Baghdad leading up to and during the war.
I was also happy to find that Garrels steers clear of the usual journalistic self aggrandizement in writing this incredible compelling book. Weaving together her own daily life in Iraq, the pressures of dealing with the madness of Saddam's bureaucracy and her encounters with regular people, she opens up a whole different world to her readers. This has the effect of humanizing the Iraquies, showing them as neither enemy nor victim as they are so often portrayed to suit the purposes of others but rather showing them as they are. It is also refreshing to read how Garrels also breaks down the traditional barrier between the reporter and the public-showing how Garrels herself is like so many of us in being of two minds regarding the war and its consequences.
This thoughtful and powerful account of reporting from the front line should not be missed!
Rating:
Summary: people of Iraq, not politics of America
Review: The best thing that I found about this book is how the focus was NOT on the politics of the war in Iraq. Anne Garrels, thankfully, didn't spend too much time analyzing President Bush's choices in starting the war, like so many other books have done. Instead, she chose to talk about the people of Iraq, and focus on the humane aspects of her stay in Baghdad. Although she covered much of the daily corruption in Iraq, she didn't choose to comment on it, and the memorable parts of the book are when she talks to Iraqi civilians, those who choose to speak out or those who stay silent. Although conservatives might decry it as liberal, this book shows one of the most important aspects of the war that often goes unnoticed - the effect on the people of Iraq.
Rating:
Summary: Listen to the silences...
Review: This is a well-written, often fascinating account of life in Baghdad under Saddam while waiting for the bombs to fall. It's fun to hear some of the events from war-time Baghdad told from the receiving end.That said, all she ever reported was local color. What was the purpose in risking her life, except for her own ego and adrenalin rush? This is a nice little book, but there's not much new or relevant here about the Iraqi situation.
Rating:
Summary: Journalism at War
Review: Though Garrels was one of just a handful of American journalists to stay in Baghdad during the run-up to war, the political and military machinations going on around her are just one element of the book. The meat of the book is devoted to her personal relationships with her fellow journalists, minders, drivers, and the myraid Iraqi officials who spent the regime's final days collecting bribe money. As an inside look into the harrowing life of a war correspondant, the book is brilliant, filled with menacing bad guys and explosions that are way too close for comfort. But Garrels is at her absolute best as she delves into the backroom politics of the world of the macho foreign correspondant. She revels in the fact that American television left Baghdad before the war, leaving only an old school contingent of print reporters to cover the invasion from the capital. She pulls no puches as she berates CNN's arrogance and Geraldo Rivera's foolishness. Her demand is for professionalism over sensationalism.
Rating:
Summary: Listen to the silences...
Review: While another reviewer chided Anne Garrels for reporting on "local color", it is that local color that helps to paint the picture of the Iraq that we find ourselves struggling with today. The people she met, the stories they told, the future they predicted, all came together to help me, a true non-student of politics, understand the situation a bit better. I'd love a follow-up done sometime - what has happened to some of the people she knew in the year or so since she left Baghdad? What else do we need to hear from Iraq's people... not the militants, but the true, proud, Iraqi people who deeply want the future they dared dream of? The story says much - both in what has been written, as well as by what was not said. This is not a review of American policy, but a glimpse into the Iraq of late 2002 and early 2003. The audio version was outstanding. The narration by the author moved with the story, leading me to think that she was, perhaps, envisioning the events again as they unfolded. It felt very much "present tense". The e-mails from Vint Lawrence added a break and contrast, and truly enhanced the tale.
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