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Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq,
 
 

Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Jeff Neumann (Author), Donovan Webster (Author)
Key Phrases: screaming guy, civil society building, blast walls, Green Zone, Sadr City, Tel Aviv (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by David Oliver Relin

Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, + Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
  • This item: Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, by Ray LeMoine

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What do you get when you mix a couple of booze-guzzling, Valium-addled, 20-something slackers from urban America with centuries-old sectarian hatred and a dubious war? Well, you get this alternately lame, alternately compelling tale from the first year after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. At loose ends, T-shirt merchants (selling "Yankees suck" at Fenway) Lemoine and Neumann decide to head out to Iraq by way of Israel. Having passed on an opportunity to go to Baghdad earlier in the war—"During Iraq's looting, the thought of loading up a stolen Lamborghini with Persian rugs and Baathist booty had crossed our minds. Stupid, I know"—these scalawags quickly find themselves in the middle of the Green Zone in Baghdad, scamming their way into jobs managing an NGO, dodging angry mobs in Sadr City and partying with just about everybody in town. Along with the boozing ("Jeff and I awoke at the NPR house with searing hangovers from a night of booze and pills"), there's a lot of name-dropping (among many others, Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker). Not entirely without merit, the book does capture a sense of the madness of postwar Iraq. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

LeMoine and Jeff Neuman had it easy; instead of finishing college, they spent the summer months selling "Yankees Suck" -T-shirts outside Fenway Park and spent the rest of the year traveling the world. But when their beloved Red Sox lost the 2003 American League Championship to the Yankees in a do-or-die game-seven matchup, they decided not to go back to Boston and instead made the unlikely choice of traveling to Israel and then right into Baghdad, ground zero of the Iraq War. Going to Iraq with the intention of providing humanitarian aid in a war they did not support, they ended up working as volunteers for Paul Beemer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the agency that was supposed to provide interim command and support prior to establishing the new Iraqi government. The boys' position of being both outsiders and insiders provides a unique perspective on the war that is miles away from anything found through the "normal" news channels. It is a complex, harrowing, frustrating, and heartbreaking account of the American occupation in Iraq. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (August 3, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594200912
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594200915
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #725,653 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Ray LeMoine
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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A real sleeper among Iraq books, November 23, 2006
I can't remember how this book was brought to my attention, but I am glad that it was. I took a break from "Cobra II", "Fiasco", and other "big books" about the war to get these guys' "off the beaten path" perspective. I'm a longtime independent traveler and, although Baghdad is not on my list of current destinations, I can readily understand how and why these guys blundered into Baghdad. The book is great fun because of the "slacker" attitude and the perspective that's outside the usual journalistic channels. My guess is that "the guys" had a lot of help writing this. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little embellishing, but I'd also guess that some of the wildest stories are the most credible.

Essentially, two professional screw-ups decided that their love of dangerous destinations warranted a trip to Baghdad. Despite the security measures in place there, the guys made it across the border and took up residence, initially outside the Green Zone. The book is full of soldiers of fortune, NGO workers, courageous Iraqis, and the mix of US military personnel, embassy types, military contractors, and journalists. The guys eventually wind up running a small aid operation as part of the effort to set up a viable NGO infrastructure in the country.

The book's strengths include its first hand descriptions of the Green Zone and non-Green Zone Baghdad, the guys' interactions with ordinary Iraqis and their perspectives on some of the "innovations" in Iraq (e.g., reliance on contractors, national guard, and Hertiage Foundations-connected interns). They also mention the little discussed problems of drug use among the military (and just about everyone else), particularly steroids, stimulants, and benzodiazepines. The book is unflattering in its description of the occupation administration and the military contractors (who operate in a legal grey zone) come off as arrogant and troublesome for the occupation, while the national guardsmen come off as dolts. Other books such as Crawford's "The Last True Story.." paint a different picture of guardsmen (Crawford was in the Army National Guard himself, and is one of the few accounts to talk about drug use among the military), but the view of the contractors seems consistent with other sources.

The book clearly goes for the absurd and other accounts would suggest that they probably had much from which to choose. Along the way, the guys befriend a variety of soldiers, embassy folks, NGO types (Iraqi and Western), and ordinary locals. They largely stumble into doing aid work and the lead author comes to enjoy it and develop some expertise. Along the way, friends die or slip into substance abuse or insanity, and the whole seen finally becomes too much. The book is a vivid adventure and great fun in places, although one never loses sight of where this all takes place. Even if you know that the war has become a "fiasco", that interns from the Heritage Foundation aren't the way to rebuild a country, and that Baghdad is a dangerous place, the book allows you to see these things from fresh perspectives. There's probably too much about the authors' previous lives in the early parts of the book, but otherwise, this is an adventure worth reading.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars I was impressed, April 7, 2007
By Rebecca Gormley (Dayton, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I just finished this book and was impressed with these guys' observations and their obvious concern for the Iraqis' plight. They went there almost as a lark then couldn't avoid seeing the ramifications of the conflict. They did take the bull by the horns and did what they could to help, even though nothing anyone could do would be enough. They did seem like doofuses at times but I don't think that matters to the book. I didn't like all the drugs and alcohol and wonder how they survived, but still they seem to have meant well.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, February 21, 2007
This book reminded me of P.J. O'Rourke's classic 1980s Rolling Stone articles. The authors provide an interesting outsiders' description of Baghdad circa 2004. While they worked and lived (most of the time) within the Green Zone, they were no strangers to the surrounding areas. Their descriptions of the restaurants, bars, hotels, pharmacies and housing in the surrounding Red Zone were a highlight, as were their descriptions of the military personnel (generally favorable), security contractors (not so favorable), and assorted reporters and social workers. After reading of the authors' trips to the suburban slums to pass out clothing, Sadr City will no longer be just a location I hear mentioned on the nightly news. The authors left Baghdad just as things were starting to really deteriorate, and many of the places they frequented outside the Green Zone are no longer safe for Americans. (Not that they were all that safe even then. An example is the evening the authors were near a massive hotel bombing.)

The map at the front of the book was extremely useful for following the authors' Baghdad adventures. All in all, a fast-paced, enjoyable way to learn about the post-invasion Iraq you don't hear about on the cable news networks.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative and funny book.
I heard this guy on NPR. I was fascinated by all the trouble these two seemed to get into. I have a brother-in-law who used to live like this and that's what caught my... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Patricia Mace

4.0 out of 5 stars On the road to Baghdad
I have to admit I was looking forward to reading this book after some of the heavy policy centric books on Iraq I had recently read. Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. A Newman

5.0 out of 5 stars The other side of the wall
I just finished reading this book and can only say it's therapeutic for anyone who has been to Iraq. Read more
Published 8 months ago by S. Stellmacher

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of "Babylon by Bus"
If you have visited Fenway Park in the past decade, then you are well aware of the colorful T-shirts that are hawked outside the Park. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Alan L. Chase

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best reads ever
I love the approach. as a fellow traveller and adventurist, I felt jealous reading through the good times, hard times, and strange times these two young people come across... Read more
Published on September 21, 2007 by fuzzy_luvin

5.0 out of 5 stars Edgy
This book, while edgy and occasionally sarcastic, was a breath of fresh air this summer. With raw wit and crystal vision, Ray and Jeff have been able to capture a moment in time... Read more
Published on September 4, 2007 by Andrea

4.0 out of 5 stars Irreverent, obnoxious, and accurate
These guys are over the top in every sense, but perhaps that's fitting for a war and occupation that somehow makes their antics seem quaint. Read more
Published on July 7, 2007 by Neil Laslett

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch Cultural History
This book was a serendipitous discovery and is a very enjoyable and enlightening read. On one level it's a riveting and picaresque tale of modern day Huck Finn and Tom... Read more
Published on June 11, 2007 by Connolly Joseph

3.0 out of 5 stars About What You'd Expect
What would you expect from a couple of directionless college dropouts that arrive in Baghdad with no plan, connections, writing skills, or other professional qualifications, and a... Read more
Published on February 12, 2007 by Loyd E. Eskildson

4.0 out of 5 stars A unique perspective
There's plenty of literature out there on the Iraq war, most of it written by journalists, pundits, and government or military employees. Read more
Published on November 3, 2006 by Julie

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