Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
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“A very funny and frequently insightful look at the world’s most combustible region.”—The New York Times Book Review NATIONAL BESTSELLER Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz's 1991 classic account of his travels across the Middle East and through the Arabian Peninsula, now in eBook for the first time With razor-sharp wit and insight, intrepid journalist Tony Horwitz gets beyond solemn newspaper headlines and romantic myths of the 1990s, to offer startling, honest close-ups of the Middle East. His quest for hot stories takes him from the tribal wilds of Yemen to the shell-pocked shores of Lebanon; from the sands of the Sudan to the souks of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Careering through fourteen countries, including the Sudan, Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan, Horwitz travels light, packing a keen eye, a wicked sense of humor, and chutzpah in overwhelming measure. This wild and comic tale of misadventure reports on a fascinating world in which the ancient and the modern collide.
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Tony Horwitz here collects stories about his time in the Middle East, as a journo / reporter working as a ‘stringer' (ie paid piece-work or by the article picked up) as he “followed his wife” to the Middle East where she was a reporter (of a more permanent nature), based in Cairo for around two years.
These are not the articles Horwitz wrote - these are better described as the stories of Horwitz finding those stories he wrote if that makes sense. We are provided with the tale of the journey as well as the discovery, of the people who assist him with his travel (formal fixers, but more often just people who help him get a ride from here to there, or make introductions for him).
Egypt, Yemen, UAE, Iraq, Jordan, Israel & Palestine, Libya, Sudan & South Sudan, Lebanon and Iran all feature. Throwing himself into warzones and other dodgy places, competing with the major network reporters, interviewing refugees and those impoverished and disadvantaged as well as those despots at the top of the foodchain.
I wouldn't describe as a funny book, but Horwitz is observant and amusing, while still respecting the gravity of a situation. Most often he is happy to share the problems he ends up in, and a few of those of his fellow journalists. Being raised Jewish, Horwitz describes when this is an issue to be disguised, but doesn't sour his view of Islam.
P105: While in Iraq
My escort worked for the Information Ministry, which, by definition, made him a poor source of information.“Is this near the presidential palace?” I asked as we passed a heavily guarded compound.“Not far,” he said.“And where is the Foreign Ministry?”“Also nearby.”Searching for neutral topics, I commented on the weather. Yes, he said, it is very hot. How hot he could not say. The weather in Baghdad was classified information, “for security.”
