A review by dukegregory
Shalash the Iraqi by Shalash

I 100% failed this book. I read it in clumps, as if it were a novel. As a former blog, this leads to a grating sense of plotless repetition, which is a byproduct of expectation rather than execution. Regardless, my experience was mixed, yet I really do love the text as it is. A work of satire exploring the absurdity of the end of the reign of Saddam Hussein and the downtrodden false promise of American occupation, all in real time. The first three quarters are comic pieces about deceitful democracy, sectarian shenanigans, and the convergence of progressive politics in a region defined (by politicians and outside powers) by a certain out-of-dateness. Is Iraq to continue to fall prey to the Islamic Republic of Iran's immense conservatism or become akin to Jordan or Palestine or Kuwait or neither or, by the time a decision is actually made, will brain drain occur to the point that all the Iraqis who can will flee to Denmark? The last quarter takes on a distinct, solemn tone. A fatalism asserts itself as hatred and fear embroil with corpse mountains and bleeding hope. Really really really worthwhile reading as an American who grew up recalling PBS reports about the death toll for American soldiers in the Iraq War. I can so vividly see the images of war, tank sieges, sandy wounds, a nation in a state of collapse: an abstraction of the Middle East as a space of ceaseless conflict, unending usurpation, and totalizing death. Reading Shalash's work, which is so specifically meant for Iraqi eyes, challenges and reenvisions American involvement as the global perpetrator of "democracy." Hegemony be damned.