Customer Reviews

Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

First, this book is NOT written by James Ridgeway. He just wrote a short introduction to the book. Amazon should change its copy to reflect that Riverbend is the author of this collection of blog entries.

Riverbend is a woman in her mid-twenties living in the hell that is Baghdad. Her blog "Baghdad Burning" is an example of how vital the blogging phenomenon can be. She gives us, in "real time", a deeply intimate view of what is actually happening to the people of Iraq by describing what she and her family members are going through.

Her entries are sometimes funny, often angry, always compassionate. She is well educated and well read, knows a great deal about American culture and is ferociously honest.
Her entries are not ideological, like those of many other Iraqi bloggers. She speaks from her heart, not her politics.

Writing is writing, but great writing is rare and deserves to be honored. We are not a time, yet, when the literature of the Internet can be respected as equal to that in print. But, if there ever is a Nobel Prize for Internet Literature, Riverbend should be its first recipient. She is the equal to any essayist writing today. Even when angry, she writes with a delicacy, with true elegance that no other writer I know can match.


Each day, thousands of people around the world view her blog. Many days we are disappointed she has not made an entry. That is not because we love her writing and have learned so much from her expression of her point of view; we all open her page just to make sure she is still alive, that she has not been shot or bombed, or raped or subjected to any more suffering than she and her family have already experienced. She is a person many of us love deeply and want so much for her to survive and flourish.

I keep this book next to my computer. I pick it up occassionally and open it some random page. I learn from her, laugh with her, feel her agony at what has been done to her country, her people. This book is wonderful. It will become a classic. And it will stand as part of a body of great literature all of us who consider her a friend know she will someday write.

Hands down, this is one of the best books yet to bring home the reality of what this illegal occupation is doing to Iraq and her people. Writing from her home in Baghdad, Riverbend invites us into her home, introduces us to her family and neighbors, and allows us to tag along with her as she goes about her life.

This book is a compilation of her blog entries for part of 2003 and 2004. Because her thoughts and observations are written down daily - or as often as electricity allows - her writing is fresh and honest and we are allowed to share her hopes, fears and anger in a very personal way.

A talented writer, she is armed with a wealth of facts and statistics regarding culture, politics and religion in the area. She also shares many of the tragic stories of innocent Iraqis trying to cope with unbearable circumstances. It's enough to break your heart.

If you are interested in delving further into life in Iraq, the author includes numerous links to websites and blogs of a similar nature.

Internet users, myself included, have been following Riverbend's blog for a few years now and I can barely express how thrilled I am that it has finally been published. With any luck, the remainder will be published and her full story will be told. This is the most believable account of day-to-day life in occupied Iraq that I have ever seen. Bagdhad Burning would be an excellent tool for teachers that want to bring the current situation abroad into a more complete context than we see in news coverage. High school age children will be drawn in by the experience of someone closer to their age (she was 24 when she started her blog), and will likely empathize with her struggles and her passion.

Thought there are several blogs maintained by Iraqi civilians, this one has a clear, compassionate voice and she seems much like any one of us. Her daily struggles to get by can be quite compelling, as she combats things like intermittent access to electricity and water. Her English is perfect. In fact, her English is better than many native speakers. She is highly intelligent and articulate. She will inform you and she will make you cry.

In order to make the war more acceptable, there are many who would like us to think of Iraqi civilians as less than human, that Muslims somehow value life less than the "rest of us". Riverbend makes it impossible to fall into that trap. Her voice is as clear and as present as your sister's, your neighbor's, your closest friend's. You will ache for her and pray for her family.

If you read this book and want to know what happens next, the blog is ongoing at http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/. She continues to update, roughly every two weeks, unless some major event comes sooner.

Ive been reading this Iraqi woman's blog for sometime, as ive found it to be witty, humane, intelligent, impassioned, imformative about current events in Iraq, and provides a memorable reflection on how life is lived under a military occupation. This is by far the best blog on Iraq, and not surprisingly the book has won an award.
Isnt it best to learn events from a local who is there and outside the Green zone? To listen to what the natives are experiencing? Rather than just embedded foreign journalists with little contact with the people?
Yes, she passionately rejects the US invasion, and wants the americans out of her country. That seems to be a crime in some quarters. That does not make her anti-american: it does make her a patriot.
Not surprisingly, she has come under attack by a number of pro-war reviewers, who prefer Pentagon feed. One claims Riverbend is a north american, out to fool us. Her sources for this bit of bilge? A (unnamed) marine and her (former)Naval Intelligence husband! That writer is the one blinded by 'mythology'.
I will continue to read this wonderful writer and can recommend her to anyone not yet aware of her existence.

There are a number of levels on which this amazing collection of blogs succeeds. First, of course, is that it provided a valuable perspective on Iraq and the Iraqi people that is unique. It brings home the horrors of living in a war torn land, riven with internal strife and occupied by an foreign army with pathetic leadership at the top, civilian level. Just as valuable is this wonderful, fresh voice, this fascinating woman who can no longer practice her profession and who sees a great backward leap in the rights of women. It is not at all a stretch to read this as literature as well as an amazing documentary of a time and place.

Baghdad Burning has been one of the most important blogs in the blogosphere. Riverbend is an terrific writer who has brought home the horrors and truths of Iraq to people all over the globe. Her insights are brave, intelligent and often sad. She is living in the midst of a tragedy that will only continue for years to come even when America leaves the country behind. I have her blog bookmarked on my laptop and I'm glad to finally have a compilation of her writing. This is a book that should be read by all and I believe it is an important historical document.

[...] They attack Riverbend personally with condescendiing slams aimed at Riverbend's socio-economic class or religious background. The gall of a comfortable American sitting back and slamming a young girl who is living through a hell that we can't even imagine is beyond belief. They sneer at her for writing about lack of electricity, water and the escalating violence she has witnessed and must live through daily. They accuse her of being ignorant about the pain of living under the brutality of Saddam as though she supported the man and agreed with his regime even though she knows what is was like a lot better than they do. People like these can only think in black and white and the fact that they presume to judge those who are experiencing the trauma of war while they aren't is beyond shameful. It's incredible to me that such arrogant, small minds exist but then again, that's how we got into this debacle in Iraq to begin with. [...]

It shouldn't be surprising that a young woman in a country that has been brutally bombed, invaded and occupied by a foreign army would write poignantly about the plight of her people. Riverbend's honest descriptions of the hell George Bush and his ilk have created in Iraq will make your blood boil. America, under conservative Republican leadership, is involved in a continuing international crime. Every person who voted for Bush, who supports his oil grab in Iraq, or who thinks "supporting the troops" means supporting the occupation of Iraq, MUST read this book.

Ive been reading Riverbends blogs for over a year, and she presents a clear picture of the horror that is really going on in Iraq-which is barely reported by our rather dim-witted media-who seem more concerned about who won on 'American Idol' or else 'man bites dog' stories.
The media which tried to sell us the WMDs without even checking, are now blindly ignoring such things as the fact that 'OUR' Military, tired of snipers in Fallujah-simply went in and white phosphorused the whole town of 200,000 reduced it to rubble-literally burniing people alive-men-women and children-by the thousands-not a peep in the press. No wonder the ignorant call this news 'propaganda'-the ignorant revel in being in such a state. She tells the story from an inside point of view-free of the so-called "Liberal Medias" non-reporting. May she stay safe.

I've been reading Riverbend's blogs for over a year now, and let me tell ya; they beat the hell out of watching Fox News. "Baghdad Burning" tells the story of the *real* Iraq, not the sanitized la-la land that Pres. Bush keeps talking about. Riverbend is truly the Anne Frank of the 21st century; we can only hope that Riverbend's story doesn't end the same way. My rating: 10/10.

I've been in Baghdad for 17 months, and comparing the author's experiences with what my Iraqi friends tell me, I can completely believe everything the author says. Its depressing to watch the trend of her blog go from hope to dispair, but that's life here.