Customer Reviews

Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam

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I have read other books by Mark Bowden and he did not dissappoint me with "Guests..". True to his style that made his other books so good were his ability to get a 360 degree view of the situation by getting accounts from all sides of an event. He has the ability to create stories with in the story of all the people involved on all sides and it left me wondering how he was able to make such contacts, get precise information and draw the lines he did especially in regards to a radically Islamic Iran.

The only part of the book that dragged was the day to day routine the prisoners dealt with (only a few were tortured i.e. beaten, most were just holed up, some alone for months on end and repeatedly interrogated and harrassed by uneducated fundamental "students"). The prisoners were held hostage for ever 440 days and like their monotonous time spent sitting in their rooms, the book got a little monotonous talking about it. One reason I bought the book was to hopefully learn something about the history of our two cultures and where it went wrong. Mr. Bowden's storytelling capabilities are so strong that to a point, the history lesson I was looking for was somewhat clouded by the situation he was writing about. This isn't a complaint, but I may have to re-read part of the book to find some of facts I was initially looking for.

His character development was excellent, and added strength to the stories when talking about clashing personalities, prisoners harrassing the guards or doing un-Islamic things in front of the guards to embarrass them. His research on the failed Delta mission was first class (and very sad in regards to the time and energy spent along with the loss of such capable men) as was his research on Carter and his administration during the whole crisis. It may sound like a cliche, but when reading about the pressure Carter was dealing with, you did feel like you were a fly on the wall watching it go down.

Finally, Mr. Bowden did an excellent job closing the book out. The last few chapters dealing not only with a "where are they now" of the prisoners but with the student-hostage-takers as well helps bring the story to a close. His chapters comparing Iran today with America and his experience going there for research was an entertaining and educational read about the stark differences between our two cultures. Again, he has an uncanny ability of writing to make the reader think they are there. The chapter on Tehran and what its like to drive around there, about how Allah must only like the color of dust, as well as the American merchandise sold and the types of "advertisements" they have on their billboards or posters is worth the time spent reading through the somewhat long parts in the book dealing with captivity.

This was a subject he made a lot more interesting to me, and had it not been him writing the book, I probably would not have bought it. I gave it 4 stars unlike the 5 stars I gave to "Killing Pablo" or "Black Hawk Down" because I was much more interested initially in those stories. This is a great book, even if some parts are a little too long.

The newest book from Mark Bowden again delves into the murky realm where political scheming and military manuevering meet. Detailing the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis, Bowden tells a compelling story that weaves the personal experiences of those involved together with the clash of cultures and global politics.

As usual, Mark Bowden does a superb job of cutting through the mitigating complexities to deliver a strong narrative that imbues the reader with a clear picture of the unfolding events. He delivers nuanced portraits of many of the hostages, candidly exploring both their strengths and weaknesses. Simultaneously, he tells the saga of the birth of Delta Force, and the botched rescue attempt that was their infamous first mission.

While I found "Guests of the Ayatollah to be enjoyable and compelling, it fell short of Bowden's "Killing Pablo", and "Black Hawk Down". I believe the primary reason is that Bowden is at his best when depicting scenes of action and mayhem, whether Special Operations firefights or Columbian drug wars. While "Guests" does contain many action driven passages, the bulk of it is devoted to the ways in which the hostages dealt with the tedium of captivity. Obviously that is an essential part of the story, but I found it led to some passages that seemed repetitive, especially the ones that detail criticisms of the hostage's guards, and of the philosophy of the Iranian cultural revolution. The secondary weakness of the book is the ending, in which Bowden switches to a first person perspective to discuss his own ideas about Iran in the present day. For me it lessened the impact carried by the rest of the book.

My two complaints are very minor, but enough to prevent a full five star rating. This fascinating and imformative book is a great aid for understanding the current crisis developing between America and Iran. Ultimately, any reader should find this to yield many rewards.

"Guests of the Ayatollah" is a riveting account of the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran by militant Islamic radicals and students in 1979. Fifty-two Americans (an additional 14 had been released earlier) were held hostage for 444 days until Ronald Reagon's Inauguration in 1981. With such a large cast of characters, it is helpful that each of the six chapters is opened with a page of photographs of the principals for that chapter (with two pages of maps).

The author of "Black Hawk Down" chillingly describes the doomed Delta One Task Force rescue attempt in the midst of a presidential election year. His research will make this book the definitive account of this crisis. Mr. Bowden seems to have interviewed everyone involved : the hostages, the Iranians, Delta Force soldiers, and American politicians. He injects himself into the epilogue as he traveled four times to Iran in 2003-2004 to track down the key Iranian participants. "Guests of the Ayatollah" is a page-turner that sheds background and light onto the current nuclear crisis with Iran.

Guests of the Ayatollah is by far Mark Bowden's best work. If he doesn't win a Pulitzer Prize for this brilliant piece of journalism he will have been robbed! His outstanding research, interviews, and story telling weave the most compelling narrative of what actually occurred behind the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran during the 444 days that America was held captive. You actually feel like you are right there amongst the American hostages battling anger, fear, depression, smiling inward with every small personal victory over the Iranian students, and comtemplating ways to escape the nightmare both physically and mentally. You also get a clear picture of a President who is angered by the turn of events in Iran, but is too weak to do anything about it. The inclusion of the details of the bold, but ill-fated American rescue mission (Operation Eagle Claw) is fascinating in itself and brilliantly woven into the story. Twenty-six years after the U.S. Embassy takeover you would think that everything that needed to be said about the crisis would have been said, but as Mark Bowden shows that's clearly not the case! THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY MUST READ BOOK! A note to Mark Bowden: A great piece of journalism, Mark! I hope you pick up a Pulitzer Prize. You deserve it!

Anyone who wants to understand our current stand-off with nuclear Iran simply must read this incredible book of historical journalism. Mark Bowden has captured the very essence of our ongoing, 27-year conflict with radical Islam by exposing the horrid events of 1979 - 1980 when rage-filled college students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. It's a triumph of professional research and sophisticated storytelling.

Bowden takes us inside the U.S. embassy just as the takeover was about to be launched. In short order, we meet an incredible cast of real-life characters, from street savvy embassy staffers like Michael Metrinko to clueless government officials and over-confident radicals. As the hostage crisis unfolds, we can see how the self-righteous "joy" over the initial takeover quickly degenerated into a sad drama of suspicion, prejudice and incompetence that dragged on for 444 days - much longer than anyone really wanted, including the hostage takers themselves.

To make matters even worse, the very same radicals who launched this tragic episode are now largely in control of the Iranian government. Many Americans are still clueless about the events that got us to this place. It's a bad dream that just won't go away...

Both Iran and the U.S. get their fair share of criticism in this exhaustively researched book. If you're looking for an "us vs. them, good guys vs. bad guys" treatment, don't look here. Bowden properly points out our massive intelligence failures before, during AND after the initial embassy seizure. Even the aborted rescue mission seems rooted in a fantasy cloud of wishful thinking. For their part, the Islamic radicals come across as typical "true believers" who never let the facts get in the way of the "truth." Like the Taliban, the ultimate legacy of the hostage-takers was to establish a dysfunctional, paranoid regime that poisons the soul of Islam and breeds violence throughout the Middle East. Lord save us all.

Only one criticism: I wish that Bowden had included more maps of metro Tehran, more photos of second-tier players and more verbatim excerpts from original documents. Even with those flaws, this is certainly the most important non-fiction book of 2006. Bravo, Mark Bowden!

PERSONAL NOTE: As a graduate of the J school that hands out the Pulitzer Prizes, I'll be extremely disappointed if Bowden doesn't win a medallion this time around. And based on some correspondence I had with President Carter back in the early 1980s, I think he would agree, even if some of the memories in this book make Carter wince.

This supurb book is quite long, 700+ pages. That's because it's really three, or maybe four, or depending on your point of view, perhaps five books in one. It's the story of the hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.

The first book is the story of the hostages taken from the embassy. This covers them as individuals, their duties in the embassy, their lives as hostages. A surprise was how poorly they were organized to collect useful intelligence.

The second book is on the students that stormed the embassy. They first did this somewhat as a lark. And it grew beyond them. A surprising part of their story is how ignorant they were of world affairs beyond their own lives. And finally how they have suceeded in the government of Iran since. But you have to wonder what would have happened if the Marine guards had started shooting.

The third book is on the Delta Force and 'Operation Eagle Claw.' As we know it was a disaster. We really didn't realize just how bad it really was. Let's hope we do better on the next such event.

The fourth book is on the American diplomatic response and President Carter's actions and decisions. This part also discusses the world's response and that of the United Nations which basically issued public statements.

The fifth book if you can say it exists, is on the overall relationship between the United States, the west and radical Islam.

We really don't know what happened in incidents like this one until we read the well researched books books such as this one that seemingly can't be done until the political passions have died. This book is exactly that kind. I can only add my two cents to the other reviewers who say that this should clearly get one of this year's Pulitzer's.

Yes, it is a very thick book, but it needed to be because the Iranian Hostage Crisis had so many plots and sub-plots, not to mention rumors and spins, that anthing shorter would not have done the subject justice. Bowden explains in great detail how internal Iranian power-struggles influenced the Hostage Crisis more then 20 years ago. What is more, these struggles continue to the present day. The book made that clear and gave me a good foundation to understand present day Iran, its civilian government, the ayathollahs and the West's difficulty dealing with it. I read it in one setting, shortly before the most recent Iranian hostage-taking incident. It helped me understand the latest hostage crisis, in fact, I was not surprised by the way it played out at all.

Mark Bowden has a track record of writing gripping accounts of some of our most important - yet under-reported or politically inflamed - historical events in these modern times. In his latest, "Guests of the Ayatollah", he provides a tremendously thorough presentation of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

This book traces - in remarkable detail - the taking of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by radical students, the ordeal faced by the hostages, the failed rescue mission, and the politics involved in the crisis. I cannot think of a book prior to this that has so comprehensively presented all of these elements together. Normally, it would seem too far-reaching and would result in a messy, disjointed work; with a few minor exceptions, Mr. Bowden manages to keep it all together through 600-plus pages.

Mr. Bowden does well through the course of the narrative in several key areas. First, he conveys the sense and sentiment of that stage in U.S. and world history. We recognize immediately how the timing of this hostage-taking was the capstone of a period of negative news (as it related to the U.S.). We also get the sense of the revolutionary - yet disorganized - undercurrent in Iran that prompted this incident. Second, Mr. Bowden relates the confusion and uncertainty about keeping the hostages in the weeks and months after the ayatollahs assumed control. The impetus for the embassy takeover was loosely tied to revolution but misguided, and it is obvious that the students didn't know what to do beyond their initial success. Third, the reader gets a very clear picture of how life was like as a hostage. One learns that the hostages were largely not detained under equal conditions. Some were treated harshly, others seemed to have far more "freedoms" in captivity, and the rest floated somewhere in the middle.

Mr. Bowden also does an excellent job of detailing the planning for and the failed attempt at rescuing the hostages. This is to be expected, based on his work in "Black Hawk Down" and other works. The geographical and logistical situations were huge obstacles, and we see how inter-service mistrust and a new type of special operations conspired to doom the mission before it even started. In retrospect, it is quite remarkable that the disaster at "Desert One" didn't lead politicians to scrapping Delta Force and seriously curtailing special operations for decades to come.

Much attention is also placed on the political and diplomatic machinations that occupied the 444-day ordeal. The reader truly sees how the Carter administration was hamstrung by indecision and uncertainty about how to proceed with getting the hostages back. In many ways, the obstacles facing the politicians was the same as those that the military faced. It is unclear, though, just how large a role this incident had in the demise of the Carter presidency. If anything, Mr. Bowden downplays the hostage-taking as a reason for Carter's electoral defeat, though he does seem to give half-hearted credit to Ronald Reagan's election as finally providing the break in the diplomatic impasse.

As good as the work is as a whole, there are a few drawbacks. One is that some of the descriptions of the day-to-day events of the individual hostages get somewhat tedious and repetitive. In one sense, this could be viewed as an aid in conveying the ennui and "grind" that the hostages endured. The point was certainly conveyed, but given the length and scope of the book, it did little to move the story along as a reader.

Another drawback is that, despite being fairly objective throughout the course of the book, Mr. Bowden's personal political biases show up frequently in the descriptions of the diplomacy and politics of the crisis. President Carter is certainly a sympathetic figure in that - in the larger scope of history - he was ill-prepared for the events that defined his presidency. Ultimately, he probably does deserve some credit for helping finally get the hostages home. However, there are places in this book where Mr. Bowden seems particularly eager to make President Carter blameless, while at the same time being quick to cast President Reagan with much blame for seemingly being ignorant and indecisive in his own right about what to do with regards to the crisis.

Nowhere is the personal political bias more evident than in the first chapter of the epilogue, which leads me to the third drawback of this book. That is, this first chapter of the epilogue seemed to be completely out of place in relation to that section and the entire book as a whole. The chapters of the epilogue that followed actually provided a "where-are-they-now" summary of both the hostages and the students. Why Mr. Bowden and/or his editors chose to preface it with his support of Carter and not-so-subtle criticisms of Reagan and - to some extent - both the two Bush presidents is beyond me. Granted, I obviously disagree with many of Mr. Bowden's political assertions, but I don't mind that as much as I do the placement of this chapter. It would have been far better to make that the closing chapter, where the author would naturally come in to close the narrative with his/her own reflections. This made the conclusion of Mr. Bowden's book more jarring and disjointed.

All in all, though, "Guests of the Ayatollah" is a very thorough and excellent book. It is probably too much for the average reader, but - aside from the drawbacks I have detailed here - it should ultimately be an important book for historians and well-informed citizens to read. After this book, there should be little reason for other authors to re-hash this important event in modern American history, because there wouldn't be much to improve upon.

On 11/4/79, a group of radical Islamist students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Inspired by the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, they hoped to stage a 3-day sit-in protest of America's allowing exiled Shah Reza to enter the U.S. for medical treatment. This modest goal became much more dangerous - 66 American hostages were taken and most held 444 days. Religious hardliners on the Revolutionary Council used the crisis to purge moderates from leadership. Meanwhile, Washington neither saw the gathering threat to its longtime Cold War ally, the Shah, nor did they foresee this crisis.

Underlying the crisis was resentment over the U.S. helping to engineer the replacement of Iran's elected government after U.S. oil assets were nationalized. The embassy's staffing once neared 1,000 (what in the world for?), but at the time of the crisis was down to just over 60. Most of those held were suspected of being CIA spies, and some were physically abused during questioning. Thirteen black and female hostages were released as a gesture to "oppressed Afro-Americans" and the special status Muslims afforded to women.

The U.S. tried to defuse the crisis by having the Shah leave New York for Panama - did not help. During the crisis the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, OPEC doubled oil prices, and Iraq invaded Iran. Slowly the hostage-takers tired of the stalemate. However, President Carter saw minimal hope for resolution, and a tragic rescue effort was undertaken. Due to a sandstorm and mechanical problems, the U.S. lost 8 men in a fiery landing-zone crash between a helicopter and a C-130; in addition, 6 other choppers also failed or were left behind. (Some believe the heavy media hostage situation coverage, together with an on-going presidential campaign, created extreme political pressure that brought on the failed mission and nearly worse.)

Last minute negotiation attempts with the Carter administration continued almost until the Reagan inauguration. This undercuts those who believe Reagan's people made their own agreement to end the crisis, though Reagan never made a proposal on how this would be done.

The current Iranian President Ahmadinejad admits involvement in the hostage crisis, but denies personally invading the embassy grounds or holding and interrogating hostages. (Several of the hostages, however, disagree.) Regardless, many of the students involved in the 1979 crisis are now highly placed in Iran's current government.

Interesting history that also shows how a relatively minor event can generate significant complications. Several times the Ayatollah could have stopped the events, or even prevented its initiation - however, his playing to Iranian public opinion prevented easy resolution.

For those interested in history and especially the history of the relationship between Iran and the U.S., this book is essential. This book is well written, fine storytelling, and appropriately detailed without belaboring the point. Probably the best one source history of the hostage crisis. Some may find it a little too charitable to President Carter, but it appears to be a fair portrayal.