julesjim's review against another edition
3.0
Stories about the Afghanistan and mostly Iraq war, by an American journalist having spent years in the middle of it. The anecdotes can be moving and often terrifying. Unfortunately, it doesn't give any perspective about the reasons behind it all (oil, WMDs, media, neo-cons, etc.)...
emurph09's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.0
« ‘if we gave people jobs, we would have an end to terrorism’ »
« As i walked out, I couldn’t help but feel cynical about the CIA in Iraq. It was hard to believe they were so bereft of intelligence that they had been forced to rely on a newspaper reporter to help them with the whereabouts of a kidnapped American. »
nickfourtimes's review against another edition
4.0
1) [In Afghanistan] "The old men, the leaders, were walking junkyards, metal and bullets and shrapnel, heaped over with holes and scar tissue. They'd walk in on peglegs with ill-fitting plastic arms, and when they plunked down in their chairs it was like watching the frame of an old car collapse. They had these handsome oversize features, jutting chins and enormous hands. They'd pour their tea from the cup and slurp it from the saucer, loud, because it was cooler that way. They'd look at you and you'd think, Jesus, they are not killable. They're from another world. They beat the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union fell apart."
2) "Some days I thought we had broken into a mental institution. One of the old ones, from the nineteenth century, where people were dumped and forgotten. It was like we had pried the doors off and found all these people clutching themselves and burying their heads in the corners and sitting in their own filth. It was useful to think of Iraq this way. It helped in your analysis. Murder and torture and sadism: it was part of Iraq. It was in people's brains."
3) "There were always two conversations in Iraq, the one the Iraqis were having with the Americans and the one they were having among themselves. The one the Iraqis were having with us---that was positive and predictable and boring, and it made the Americans happy because it made them think they were winning. And the Iraqis kept it up because it kept the money flowing, or because it bought them a little peace. The conversation they were having with each other was the one that really mattered, of course. That conversation was the chatter of a whole other world, a parallel reality, which sometimes unfolded right next to the Americans, even right in front of them. And we almost never saw it."
4) "Driving [into Baghdad] was an upper and a downer at once, like putting a bullet in the chamber."
5) "I fared better than many of the people I wrote about in this book; yet even so, over the course of the events depicted here, I lost the person I cared for most. The war didn't get her; it got me."
2) "Some days I thought we had broken into a mental institution. One of the old ones, from the nineteenth century, where people were dumped and forgotten. It was like we had pried the doors off and found all these people clutching themselves and burying their heads in the corners and sitting in their own filth. It was useful to think of Iraq this way. It helped in your analysis. Murder and torture and sadism: it was part of Iraq. It was in people's brains."
3) "There were always two conversations in Iraq, the one the Iraqis were having with the Americans and the one they were having among themselves. The one the Iraqis were having with us---that was positive and predictable and boring, and it made the Americans happy because it made them think they were winning. And the Iraqis kept it up because it kept the money flowing, or because it bought them a little peace. The conversation they were having with each other was the one that really mattered, of course. That conversation was the chatter of a whole other world, a parallel reality, which sometimes unfolded right next to the Americans, even right in front of them. And we almost never saw it."
4) "Driving [into Baghdad] was an upper and a downer at once, like putting a bullet in the chamber."
5) "I fared better than many of the people I wrote about in this book; yet even so, over the course of the events depicted here, I lost the person I cared for most. The war didn't get her; it got me."
boleary30's review against another edition
3.0
Iraq War reporter, very twisted, doesn't quite have a plot
paulvanbuuren's review against another edition
3.0
Prima boek als je gek bent op oorlogshandelingen. Filkins heeft het ergste na dichtbij meegemaakt.
Minder geschikt boek als je een stukje duiding of context wil.
Minder geschikt boek als je een stukje duiding of context wil.
elsary's review against another edition
4.0
I admire the way Filkins writes, so casually and calmly about the things he saw and experienced. He doesn’t take sides and doesn’t comment on politics, he just reports, and does it well.
lukre's review against another edition
4.0
a really difficult read at times. The reason for less than 5* is probably the writing style. The jumping-aroundness of the segments. But worth the read if you want to expeirence the reality of the Iraq invasion. Also - the title is really appropriate. This became even more obvious after I'd read Haldeman's Forever War this month.
Note to self - I should really review these two books together....
The full review of this book and Joe Haldeman book of the same title is available on my blog
https://anatomyofreading.wordpress.com