War Narratives, Journalism, U.S. Politics in the Post Cold-War Era, United States History - 20th Century - Wars & Conflict, United States History - 20th Century - 1945 to 2000, Political Biography, News & Media Biography, Middle Eastern Conflicts, Middle
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Overview
In the months leading up to the American invasion of Iraq, Jon Lee Anderson “embedded’ himself among the people of Baghdad and, along with a small number of other Western reporters, rode out the entire invasion and much of the subsequent occupation from inside the city. His dispatches from Baghdad were immediately and widely recognized as the most important writing anyone was doing on the war anywhere, for any publication. In recognition of its significance, the New Yorker routinely held the magazine open an extra day and set up a special production team to deal with the pieces; around the magazine, comparisons to John Hersey’s fabled piece “Hiroshima” were flying. The Fall of Baghdad is not a collection of New Yorker pieces; it is an original and organically cohesive narrative work that tells the story of what the people of Baghdad have endured at the hands of Saddam Hussein, during the war, and during its aftermath. This is not a pro- or anti-war book in the same way that A Perfect Storm isn’t a pro- or anti-weather-event book; the point is to bear witness to what the people in this ancient world city have endured, to put a human face on a calamity of epic dimensions. The book’s focus alternates among a small cast of characters, a group of disparate Iraqis who allow Anderson to bring to life different facets of the story he wants to tell; and he fills in the canvas around his figures with rich background that makes their significance sing, and helps bind the book together as the definitive reckoning with this, among the most fateful stories of our time.The hallmark of Jon Lee Anderson’s writing is its bravery, its moral wakefulness, even in the sorts of extreme situations in which most other war reporters retreat into gonzo, vainglorious posturing. That bravery shines through here: because he is able to keep the aperture of his mind open wide in situations in which others shut down, he’s able to capture the humanity of his subjects, the people of Baghdad, with a depth of field that’s breathtaking. It is no surprise that two of his heroes are George Orwell and Robert Capa; he is their rightful heir.
Synopsis
In the months leading up to the American invasion of Iraq, this New Yorker correspondent “embedded’ himself among the people of Baghdad and, along with a small number of other Western reporters, rode out the entire invasion and much of the subsequent occupation from inside the city. Jon Lee Anderson’s dispatches from Baghdad were immediately and widely recognized as the most important writing anyone was doing on the war anywhere, for any publication. In recognition of its significance, The New Yorker routinely held the magazine open an extra day and set up a special production team to deal with the pieces; around the office, comparisons to John Hersey’s fabled article “Hiroshima” were flying. The Fall of Baghdad is not a collection of New Yorker pieces, though; it is an original and organically cohesive narrative work that tells the story of what the people of Baghdad have endured at the hands of Saddam Hussein, during the war and during its aftermath. This is not a pro- or anti-war book; the point is to bear witness to what the people in this city have endured, to put a human face on a calamity of epic dimensions. The focus alternates among a small cast of characters, a group of disparate Iraqis who allow Anderson to bring to life different facets of the story he wants to tell; and he fills in the canvas around his figures with rich background that makes their significance sing, and helps bind the book together as the definitive reckoning with one of the most fateful stories of our time.Editorials
John Whiteclay Chambers II
… The Fall of Baghdad demonstrates -- like Anderson's incisive books on the war in Afghanistan, contemporary guerrilla movements and Che Guevara -- his knack for interviews, observations and finely crafted, powerful narratives. The great value of this book is that Anderson takes us beyond sound bites or official statements to hear the authentic voices of thoughtful, educated Iraqi civilians in interviews and vignettes that capture the chaos of wartime and its aftermath.— The Washington Post
Janet Maslin
In this measured, keenly descriptive account, hindsight gives way to horror as the early rumblings of war become reality and the city of Baghdad is changed beyond recognition. Every Arab in Mr. Anderson's account, from Saddam Hussein's personal physician to a cheesemaker on the street, reflects the dread, fury and frustration of feeling helpless in the face of this nightmare.— The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
New Yorker writer Anderson's eyewitness account of the invasion of Baghdad is a thoughtful document of war, written with stunning precision. Anderson arrived in Baghdad during the eerie calm before air strikes began in March 2003. While questioning ordinary Iraqis about their country's future, he also traveled to Iran, where he interviewed war-weary Shiite Iraqi refugees. Back in Iraq, Anderson sought out members of Saddam's Baath Party and probed the ambiguous nature of their relationship with their dictator: Ala Bashir, a plastic surgeon and artist who was close to Saddam, provides Anderson with a character study rich in contradiction. Equally compelling is a poet named Farouk, whose accounts of cocktail parties under Saddam have, in Anderson's recounting, a tension and irony reminiscent of Cold War Hitchcock thrillers. Anderson also makes his openly anti-Saddam driver, Sabeh, a key character and a link to Iraqi quotidian culture. In a voice refreshingly free of machismo, Anderson proffers an inside view of war reporters' scramble to cover events and of life at the Rasheed and Palestine hotels, where most journalists stayed. In this original narrative (not a collection of his New Yorker pieces), Anderson's unobtrusive voice mediates the voices of others faithfully and with humanizing integrity, resisting any impulse to convert what he observes into political argument. Instead, he collects grimly cinematic snapshots of Iraqi casualties that will haunt readers even after the invasion has receded into history. Agent, The Wylie Agency. (On sale Sept. 23) Forecast: Anderson's visibility via the New Yorker will mean major reviews and healthy sales. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Library Journal
To live on a knife's edge for nearly 400 pages is exhausting. This is the impact of reading Anderson's (The Lion's Grave) memoirs of residing in Saddam Hussein's Iraq from 2000 and experiencing both the approach of war in March 2003 and the country's continuing chaos and violence in April 2004. The terror of the Iraqi regime, the emotional intensity of the buildup to war, the horrific devastation wrought by American arms, and the sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims envelop Anderson's life and descriptions, nearly overwhelming the text. Yet the narrative avoids a personal polemic tone; only once does Anderson break his dispassionate journalistic code to weep over the bodies of two dead children. Hatred of Saddam, suspicion of U.S. policy and tactics, and views regarding the internecine religious strife emanate clearly enough from the Iraqis interviewed. Rendered in compelling and lucid prose, this story of deceit, terror, death, and searing religious hatred evokes a great sense of despair and a deep sadness. Highly recommended.-John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
A reporter's notebook documents life in Iraq before and during the current war. It seems telling, if strange, that Saddam Hussein's so-called Triumph Leader Museum-devoted to himself, naturally-contained trophy cases full of gifts from foreign leaders: "a pair of decorative riding spurs which, according to the museum labels, were a 1986 gift from Ronald Reagan; a collection of guabayera shirts from Fidel Castro . . . ceremonial swords from Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Zhirinovsky." Hussein's hold on Iraq, suggests New Yorker correspondent Anderson (The Lion's Grave, 2002, etc.), owed much to such legitimating kindness, enabling the dictator to lord it over his people with astonishing comprehensiveness. And with considerable leeway: on receiving 100 percent of the vote in the last election, Anderson writes, Hussein freed all but a few inmates from the now doubly notorious Abu Ghraib prison, saying that they were no threat to anyone; explained prime minister Tariq Aziz, "We are like Jesus Christ, who pardoned the people who crucified him." Hussein was anything but Christlike, though, says Anderson, who suggests that Iraq did indeed have the WMDs that have so far eluded Western investigators-and, moreover, sheds no tears for the fall of the tyrant. Still, and interestingly, his pages are full of veiled warnings from Iraqis about what lies in store for any would-be occupier-"If you do anything in Iraq, do it quickly," says one-and, ominously, about what lies in store for the world should Islamic fundamentalism replace secular government. Anderson's descriptions of the American "shock and awe" attacks on Baghdad are stunning ("Saddam's palace complex was littered with the smoking hulks ofbombed buildings. I noticed that Iraqis did not gather to stare at the damage, but cast fleeting, sidelong looks at it"), though his account of events subsequent to the invasion will disquiet anyone who supports a continued American presence there: as he suggests at the close, "a year after the fall of Baghdad, it seemed as if the city had not really fallen at all. Or, perhaps it was still falling. "First-rate frontline reportage, full of luminous and eye-opening details."Book Details
Published
September 23, 2004
Publisher
Penguin Group (USA)
Pages
400
ISBN
9781101200940