Customer Reviews

Tell Them I Didn't Cry: A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like a lot of people, I've been closely following the war in Iraq, and Tell Them I Didn't Cry brings a new and unique perspective the events in that country. Jackie Spinner's stories of her experiences in Iraq and the daily struggles she faces to report the news are emotionally compelling and highly captivating. In particular, I really enjoyed her descriptions of covering the battle in Fallujah and her stories about her friendship with Luma, one of her Iraqi colleagues--both of which helped me to understand why someone would choose to go to Iraq to bring the story back home to the rest of us.

One of the things that really makes this book stand out are the end-of-chapter essays written by the author's twin sister Jenny, in which she describes the struggles that she is facing on the home front struggling to come to terms with her sister's fears and her own. Together, Jackie and Jenny Spinner paint a vivid picture of what life in Iraq is really like for the journalists who are covering the story and for their families back home.

"Tell Them I Didn't Cry" is at once an extremely well-written, deeply personal story of "joy, loss and survival" in war and a journalistic feature report destined to be required reading at every journalism school in the country. Moreover, it is simply a great read.

I know these young women, and understand the tension between the personal essayist (Jenny, the stateside and empathetic English professor) and her adventurous twin sister (Jackie, the news reporter who takes increasingly bigger risks to get the truth about Iraq) that goes on throughout the book. This was part of the unique dynamic in their writing together (that, and our peek into the experience of being a twin). The result is, among other feats, a great book about journalistic objectivity (yes, despite one sour reviewer's remarks, it does exist).

Jackie's memoir is at once deeply personal yet constantly striving for the objective truth of the story of Iraq. Without any literal mention of "journalistic objectivity", the book provides a great lesson on the subject by providing such careful subjective telling of the story. Ultimately, any of the key author's personal politics or world-view is equalized by empathy, pathos and search for professional understanding of other perspectives. Perhaps the best examples of this striving for objective reporting include Jenny's description of the hateful eyes of the Iraqi woman who witnesses her near-kidnapping outside Abu Graib Prison (the frightful incident which gives the book its title) and her interpretation of the relationship between American soldiers and the people of Iraq.

Jackie constantly seeks to understand the story from every angle, from every perspective including her own; this is the very practice that produces human objectivity. With this, her first book, it is also the practice that makes this book a must read. I can't wait until she authors another one.

I read this memoir as a member of the military and as someone who knew Jackie and Jenny in high school: I was editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper that she mentioned early in the book. Although I have not talked to her in almost 20 years, I remembered her personality and interests and learned something about her and her desire to be in Iraq.
The reader is introduced to the many people who became part of her adventure in Iraq. I fell in love with Luma and then was heartbroken at what happened to her after she left the Washington Post. Omar was the loyal friend and protector, particularly during the Battle of Falluja. I enjoyed her many interactions with the cooks and felt like I was a part of her many Friday night dinners as I read the pages of this memoir.
Jackie best writes about her family's strain to understand why she needs to fulfill her duty in Iraq. A soldier trains and is motivated to protect our nation's values and welfare of people around the world. A journalist has a similar motivation and equal responsibility to our country. As I read 'Tell Them I Didn't Cry' I got a better sense of why our friends and families do not understand why we have to fulfill this obligation, despite knowing that our duty is necessary.
I am proud of her success as a journalist and that I was glad that I had a very small role to play in her career. Also, I have warned her to stay safe and always keep her guard up. Her and I certainly have different views on why we are in Iraq; however, I believe that there is common ground and belief in the job that is being accomplished.

Jackie Spinner, with help from her twin sister, Jenny, has created an honest and touching memoir of her time in Iraq as a young Washington Post reporter. In addition to carefully detailing the conditions in Iraq, she also explores deeply what it means to be a writer, a daughter, a friend, and a sister. The writing is lovely: clear, nuanced, at times funny, at times heart-breaking.

Likewise, the small vignettes at the end of each chapter written by twin-sister Jenny are little gems of luminous prose. (Anyone who has heard Jenny's essays on NPR's All Things Considered will immediately recognize her voice in print.)

Tell Them I Didn't Cry provides a first-hand account of the ways that war irrevocably shapes and affects those who participate in it, whether as soldier or civilian, man or woman, warrior or witness. It also gives a glimpse of how that participation ripples out to affect those at home as well as those in country.

This is a book well worth reading. (You might also consider giving it to any young writers in your life.)

In this page turner Washington Post reporter Jackie Spinner writes about what it's like to be an American journalist living in Baghdad. It's not about politics it's about the reality of day to day life. Can you go out to do normal things . . . shopping, eating out, etc? Ms Spinner makes you feel like you are there. A real eye opener of a book.

Being a female journalist in Iraq she had a little different perspective on the events there. I have really enjoyed her writing and her story. The journal entries from her sister give a very sweet touch and remind us all of the fear and dread that the families of soldiers and contractors endure while their loved one is away in such a dangerous place.

After reading many of the articles that Jackie wrote for the Washington Post while working as a foreign correspondent in Iraq, I found her book, Tell Them I Didn't Cry, to live up to the high standards of journalism she displayed as a reporter. Jackie's main goal as a reporter and an author seems to be to tell the truth, whether it makes us happy, sad, proud, or angry! Anyone who reads her book will come away with a much better picture of Iraq, the Iraqi people, and what it's like to be a journalist (especially a female one) reporting on the war in Iraq. Like any good author, Jackie makes the people she worked with in Iraq, and writes about in her book, come alive!

In her shorter vignettes, Jenny also does an excellent job of sharing with the reader the anguish of loved ones left behind when journalists go off to war! Their story is seldom told, but Jenny has a unique way of using a few meaningful words to express the range of emotions felt by a journalist's family back home!

This book is truly a story of "joy, loss, and survival in Iraq!" Readers will find it hard to put down once they read the first page!

Jackie Spinner in "Tell Them I Didn't Cry" gives readers a behind-the-scenes view of what it is like to be a journalist covering the Iraq War. But this is more than just a war memoir--it is also the inspirational story of the team of Iraqi translators, stringers, guards, drivers, and cooks that has come together to help The Washington Post report the story of the Iraq War. The courage of all of these people, in the face of overwhelming fear and danger, is captivating. Jenny Spinner contributes lyrical essays that end every chapter, giving her point-of-view as an identical twin sister, back in America, waiting for every phone call and email from Jackie, worrying that every time they said goodbye might be the last time they talked. Well worth reading.

This is a well done book -- as long as you accept it for what it is.

Let me explain that qualification. "Tell Them I Didn't Cry" is Jackie Spinner's story of covering Iraq for 10 months as a reporter for the Washington Post, and how this experience affected her. She tells the story well, filling it will careful detail, showing compassion for the suffering of the Iraqis and honestly revealing how the experience wrenched her emotionally. Near the end she says, "I had gone to Iraq to find a story. Coming home, I became the story, a battered, beaten half soul of a human."

But while Spinner bemoans the problems in Iraq, she makes no attempt to provide a broader understanding of the situation there. She offers no history, nor does she try to explain the political and structural obstacles to peace. She sticks, rather narrowly, to recounting her own day-to-day experiences. This is not really a complaint, but simply a warning to readers who might be looking for something more.

I enjoyed this book largely because it offered such a detailed look at how journalists have to work in a place where few people speak English and many want to kill or kidnap them. She describes how every outing had to be carefully planned, the route chosen to avoid dangerous intersections, and sometimes with a second car following along in case of a kidnapping attempt. She describes how she tried to dress like an Iraqi to blend in. When coming to inspection checkpoints on the road, she hid key documents in her bra, knowing that no matter what no Iraqi would search there. At some checkpoints, she pretended to be asleep, so inquisitors wouldn't know she spoke English.

Spinner spends much of the book describing the Iraqi staff members who were critical to the Post's operation: drivers, guards, cooks, translators. She bonded with them deeply; it was like a family. The Americans were far from home and had no one else; the Iraqis lived semi-secret lives, since they couldn't tell their friends that they worked for Americans.

She fills the book with interesting details. When she was nearly kidnapped, she tried to remember how to say "I am a journalist" in Arabic, but all she could come up with was the phrase for "I am a vegetarian!"

In describing the unbearably hot Iraqi summer, she notes, "I discovered something new about myself. I get cranky when the thermometer reaches 130 degrees. Pam and I took turns sleeping in the one cool spot in the office. I took the midnight to 3 a.m. shift and then from 6 a.m to 8 a.m. I found that I could stay somewhat cool by taking a cold shower every thirty minutes or so. I'd take the shower in my clothes and, because it was so hot, they be dry in no time."

Spinner had never been a foreign correspondent before and her greenness probably works to the advantage of the reader. As she discovers the difficulties and surprises of this unusual life, she shares them with the reader. She takes us on the journey with her.

When I married my husband, a reporter, I told him I'd follow him anywhere his career took him, as long as he promised never to be the kind of reporter who went into war zones to cover battles. He agreed, and we got married, and thankfully, he's never gone back on that promise. So, it was with some trepidation that I picked up Spinner's book, which had been recommended to me by a friend of mine -- do I really want to read about a reporter doing exactly what I've always worried my husband might want to do someday? But boy, am I glad I did. This is a wonderfully written and extremely personable book, detailing Spinner's ten month experience as a reporter covering the Iraq war for the Washington Post. And I don't know if it's the woman's eye, or what, but more than anything else I've read about Iraq, this is the book that really gave the whole thing some life for me, turning numbers into people, and bringing home some of the enormous problems people on all sides are facing right now in that messed up country.

Highly recommended to anybody who is interested in A) journalism, B) current events, or C) understanding what the hell is going on in Iraq. And then after that, highly recommended to the rest of you. Read this book!