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Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq | 
 enlarge | Author: Farnaz Fassihi
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $17.16
You Save: $8.84 (34%)
New (35) Used (7) from $13.00
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 47237
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 1586484753
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.70443092
EAN: 9781586484750
ASIN: 1586484753
Publication Date: September 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Since 2003, Iraq’s bloody legacy has been well-documented by journalists, historians, politicians, and others confounded by how Americans were seduced into the war. Yet almost no one has spoken at length to the constituency that represents Iraq’s last best hope for a stable country: its ordinary working and middle class. Farnaz Fassihi, The Wall Street Journal’s intrepid senior Middle East correspondent, bridges this gap by unveiling an Iraq that has remained largely hidden since the United States declared their “Mission Accomplished.” Fassihi chronicles the experience of the disenfranchised as they come to terms with the realities of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In an unforgettable portrait of Iraqis whose voices have remained eerily silent—from art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers to radicalized teenagers—Fassihi brings to life the very people whose goodwill the U.S. depended upon for a successful occupation. Haunting and lyrical, Waiting for An Ordinary Day tells the long-awaited story of post-occupation Iraq through native eyes.
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| Customer Reviews:
DO NOT MISS Waiting for An Ordinary Day September 19, 2008
Sheila C. Cullen (Portland OR USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this book for a beautifully written--vivid and nuanced--account of the situation in Iraq. It will break your heart, but it's essential reading for thinking Americans.
Just when you thought... September 30, 2008
Charles Decker (New York, NY)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
...you knew everything about the shameful war in Iraq, along comes this beautiful book about the war's impact on ordinary citizens. We are fortunate in the US that we have never seen occupiers. Not so in Iraq, and this book makes us realize just how we are perceived. The Bush administration, in all its customary arrogance, thinks that we are 'heroes'. Just read this book to realize just how wrong they were, as usual.
Iraq's war misery understood October 5, 2008
Sue (Texas, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Farnaz's account of events are heart breaking. I have been following the incredible sad story of Iraq before the war started. No news of the war over the years have brought the sadness and misery of the war home so clearly. Farnaze's understanding of the culture, traditions and religion particularly makes her account of the events easier to understand. The fundamental factors which the war architects have so badly overlooked and foolishly underestimated and as foolishly they continue the rhetoric's for an even worst war with Iran.
Rebuilding Lives in Iraq October 10, 2008
Story Circle Book Reviews (www.storycirclebookreviews.org)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In her book, Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq, Farnaz Fassihi presents a heart-wrenching portrait of the Iraqi people as they come to terms with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the rebuilding of their war-torn country. Drawing on her experiences as a Wall Street Journal senior correspondent living in Iraq, Fassihi portrays a compelling story of the struggles of the regular citizens and their families. At first they cheer the Americans for tumbling a brutal dictator, but then weep in despair as the free life they dreamed about becomes a nightmare.
This book is not a discourse on military tactics and political blunders, but readers need to know that many of the Iraqi people interviewed relate disturbing stories with heavy overtones of anti-Americanism and criticism of the President, and at times, Fassihi finds herself voicing her agreement. Descriptions and conversations, framed by the author's own pain and compassion, focus on the lives of people she has befriended. Many are affected by the overthrow, occupation and subsequent collapse of an Iraqi society that blames not only the two major ruling religious sects (Sunni and Shi'ite), but also the foreign occupiers. In Fassihi's words, "Sometimes I find myself wanting to cry while I'm interviewing people and other times I feel detached, like a machine recording misery and death."
During all this turmoil, Fassihi finds love with a fellow correspondent in this war-torn land. When they are on separate assignments, she is tormented by fears of separation. Her family begs her to come home and give up her position as head of the Baghdad bureau of the Wall Street Journal, but she is drawn in by the plight of the Iraqi people and was even accused of being addicted to the job's constant threats of bombings, shootings and bloodshed. She is persecuted as a woman, shunned for being American, but loved because of her compassion for the people. Under threats of kidnapping, murder, torture, Farnaz attempts to take care of her workers and friends while dodging bullets and car bombs.
The Iraqi people dedicate their lives to regaining their dignity, preserving their art and culture, sustaining their religious beliefs and most of all hoping that some day they will indeed see an ordinary day. Their homes are bombed and searched while loved ones are forcefully detained and spirited away at the slightest rumor. Those detained often don't return, leaving families desparate to know their fate. If they do return, months later, the tales of torture, persecution and deprivations are horrendous. Fassihi's employee, Munaf, sums up their daily lives with the comment, "We are like animals in the wild. We eat, sleep and try not to get killed each day."
This powerful account of life in Iraq helps us understand why stability has been so elusive to the people of a beleaguered country. The details are rich, the story well written, and throughout the book, the true voices of the Iraqi people are heard because of the an empathetic, insightful woman who is not afraid to put herself into the middle of the story.
by Rhonda Esakov
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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