Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War

by Anthony Shadid

Paper Book, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

956.704431

Genres

Collection

Countries- Middle East

Publication

Henry Holt and Co. (2005), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 448 pages

Description

From the only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Iraq, an account of ordinary people caught between the struggles of nations. The Washington Post's Shadid went to Iraq, neither embedded with soldiers nor briefed by politicians. Because he is fluent in Arabic, Shadid--an Arab American born and raised in Oklahoma--was able to disappear into the divided, dangerous worlds of Iraq. Day by day, as the American dream of freedom clashed with Arab notions of justice, he pieced together the human story of ordinary Iraqis weathering the terrible dislocations and tragedies of war. Through the lives of men and women, Sunnis and Shiites, American sympathizers and outraged young jihadists newly transformed into martyrs, Shadid shows us the journey of defiant, hopeful, resilient Iraq, and how Saddam's downfall paved the way not only for democracy but also for an Islamic reawakening and jihad.--From publisher description.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Stbalbach

Shadid is a reporter for the Washington Post and is Arab-American (he passes in Iraq for a native Arab). He was stationed in Iraq from before the war to the elections in 2005. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for his reporting. Because he is Arab and speaks the language he is able to easily

interview people in all stations and positions of life in Iraq and provide a unique introspection of the Iraqi people. Shadid is there in person as the major events happen, interviewing people, watching as the zeitgeist mood of the country changes over time with each major event in the war, occupation and resistance.

What we learn from the book is that America is clueless about Iraq. We also learn the Iraqis are mostly clueless themselves. There are countless factions pushing and pulling in all directions, both internally and externally, with each car bombing a game to guess who might have done it and why. Iraqis are fiercely independent people, they operate according to tribal law and blood feuds (the politics of revenge), who see America as a provocative threat to their identity, and Saddam as the source of all their problems. We learn that Iraq has been a living hell since the early 1980s when the Iran/Iraq war killed more than WWI/WWII combined (on a per-capita basis) leaving a culture of death and crime in its wake. That long-repressed religious forces have fused with nationalistic pride to form militaristic religious armies. Of external Islamic movements twisting Iraq to their purposes. Of tribal conflict, sectarian conflicts, inter and intra-family conflicts.

I found this an emotionally difficult but required book. It is as close to a history of Iraq post-invasion as there can be right now, it is all first-hand accounts from Iraqis themselves, written by a reporter sympathetic and understanding of Iraqi culture. Once you get into the mind of Iraqi culture you realize how little the outside world understand this highly complex and volatile "country". At the very end of the last page of the Bibliography, stuffed with Middle East books, is one book that stands out but speaks volumes: Native Son. If you understand Native Son, you are a long way to understanding Iraq, "there's a little Bigger in us all."

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LibraryThing member janey47

I strongly recommend this one. Shadid was on the ground in Iraq befor the war and during the first year or two of the occupation, and his reporting is all about the average Iraq citizen's view of the war and its aftermath.

It will give you a whole new perspective. It's really quite lovely and very

much needed.

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LibraryThing member Periodista

One for the bookcase, I guess, but not indispensable. Shadid speaks Arabic and had a lot of experience covering the Middle East for the Washinton Post and AP. He was even in Baghdad during the invasion. This book is essentially the stories of various families and individuals that Shadid met in

Baghdad and kept returning to, watching their hopes rise and fall and sometimes still bravely flutter. Also good for getting a sense of the Shiite vs Sunni perspectives and the appeal of certain Shiite leaders.

It doesn't have the breadth of Geroge Packer's Assassins' Gate. Nothing on the intellectual underpinnings (Berman, etc.), Iraqi exiles, the administration's decision-making (or lack of it). the post-9/11 White House, the short-curcuited war-planning and reconstruction etfforts. There's a little on the politics of Iraqi leaders that emerged after the occupation (though not people like Chalabi and Allawi).

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LibraryThing member mahallett

well-read. hard to remember details. i have taught esl to many arabic speakers and they have many annoying qualities, constant chatter which is very loud actually, no sense of time, not that accepting of other cultures--who is really, not much religious tolerance--we cannot mention pigs in class

but they have other wonderful qualities, friendly, warm, generous, funny. they also believe that the americans engineered 911! as if! i think sometimes because their religion was founded about 600 years after christianity, they are about 600 years behind christian countries. think of christianity 600 years ago and you have islam!

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