No Raptors news this week. Instead, here's a book review I wrote for school.
A Thousand Farewells is a compelling book that takes readers on a decades-long journey from Winnipeg to the heart of the Middle East.
Ayed bombards the reader with details - sights, smells, noises - adding depth to the story. The description of the mourners at the overturned mass grave in Iraq collecting arbitrary bones, convinced they were the remains of loved ones was sobering. Although Ayed does a fantastic job to make the reader feel like he or she is present at the scene, I had trouble picturing the it. A mass grave is something so unfamiliar to me that the scene seemed surreal.
Despite this, Ayed's details were integral is describing the many different stops in her journey. She made the cities feel tangible. Instead of Cairo described as a crowded city, it's described as a "monstrous, polluted metropolis." Amman was described as a refugee camp teeming with garbage, where sewage runs in the streets. A place where nothing is private, and a place where cockroaches inhabit the bathrooms.
Yet, as these details work to strengthen her story, they also work to complicate it. I was overwhelmed with names, and while her detailed descriptions of cities and settings were rich, at times I had trouble following her writing as she constantly traveled the Middle East, aside from her prolonged stay in Lebanon.
Still, even with some of these convoluted portions of the book, A Thousand Farewells succeeds in explaining the volatility of the Middle East and how historical events have shaped the region into what it is today.
And although the book is comprehensive in its reporting of the people of the region, I would've liked to see a more detailed analysis of the Arab Spring. The movement was so revolutionary for a historically oppressed people that I feel Ayed should've emphasized that portion of her journey more. I'm more interested in conflict and found myself more captivated when Ayed was writing about car bombings, large protests, or her brush with a violent mob.
One book that covers the balance between conflict and human interest well is War by Sebastian Unger. Unger was embedded with a U.S. Army platoon as they were stationed in one of the most violent regions of Afghanistan. While Unger's book focuses more around the fighting and violence experienced in the region, Ayed's book emphasizes what she considers the most critical element of any story: the human element.
If journalists are to learn anything from A Thousand Farewells it's that people are the story. The stories people share about a conflict, help put that conflict in the proper perspective. A recurring theme in Ayed's book was Middle Easterner's desire for a stable peace, something that would permit them to return home or live their lives safely. These people weren't die-hard Islamic zealots hellbent on the destruction of the West but were citizens seeking safety and opportunity.
A Thousand Farewells had a significant effect on me. While I found Ayed's descriptions of Winnipeg familiar, her insight into the Middle East and the compelling stories she relayed to her readers were profound. Her book gave me hope for a region that seems largely misunderstood by the West. A region that is viewed as nothing but a threat, even when it's seeking democracy and independence from tyrants. Reading Ayed's book made me understand that Middle Easterner's aren't unlike us. Most citizens of the region don't want destruction and death, they want freedom.
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