Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1730989 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-01
• Released on: 2004-08-12
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .67 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

From Publishers Weekly
It is hard not to admire Garrels. Enduring everything from bombing raids and artillery barrages to bad food, corrupt officials and aggressive border guards, this veteran war correspondent continued to report for NPR from her perch at the Palestine Hotel throughout the coalition drive toward Baghdad. After all the major television networks pulled out their staffs, Garrels stayed in the middle of it, painting with words the only picture available to most Americans of what was going on in the center of Iraqi power and in the hearts and minds of the frightened and confused residents. Though she writes in the same clear, straightforward prose familiar to radio listeners, the powerful stuff of her live broadcasts translates poorly to the written page in this day-by-day account of her experience. She admits her limited purview, restricted in what she could see by the Iraqi Information Ministry and later by the hazards of the battlefield, and with the manuscript completed only months after her return, the reader is left feeling that reflection is not Garrels's strong suit. There are some nice details, like an Information Ministry staffer asking Garrels for batteries for his shortwave radio so he can "find out what's really going on." But her off-the-cuff impressions of the response of ordinary Iraqis to the war, which rang so true at the time, come off now as obvious and overly simple. This account works well as a personal narrative of courage under fire, suffering and survival, but unfortunately, it lacks in insightful commentary and summing up of events.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Anne Garrels of National Public Radio was one of only 16 "non-embedded" foreign journalists who remained in Baghdad throughout the 2003 Iraqi War. Her diary-style story about that war is one of the few eyewitness accounts we are likely to have. It's riveting--filled with stories of the surreal Iraqi bureaucracy, noble and devious Iraqis, generous and backstabbing journalists, wrong-headed American politicos, and the fascinating labor of getting the news and getting it out to her listeners. Garrels's confident, warm voice is as suited to reading her own book as it is suited to reporting. She delivers a story full of inflection and emotion without ever becoming overwrought. Her reports are interspersed with the eloquent e-mail reports that her husband, artist Vint Lawrence, sent to friends during Garrels's absence. Lawrence reads stiffly and undoubtedly would have improved with some critiqued practice. Yet, he writes beautifully, and his reports are essential. This is an all-round terrific listen. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
NPR correspondent Garrels, on assignment in Iraq from October 2002, before the war, until April 2003, after the war, offers an inside look at the conflict. She intersperses her reports and reflections with e-mails her husband sent to friends and family, which provide secondary color on the life of a news correspondent. New to Iraq, Garrels focuses on the perils of a new assignment, gathering reliable sources, shepherding all the technology needed for modern radio reporting, and coping with "minders," who^B monitor interviews with Iraqis. She is frank about her uncertainty of how "to tackle this complicated story in a country I don't know." This book is a fascinating look at how she manages, as one of only 16 unembedded reporters in Iraq, with the help of her driver-minder, who becomes a confidant, to cover the build-up to the war and the war itself. Readers looking for details and background on the war will appreciate Garrels' account. Vanessa Bush
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