One Crowded Hour by Tim Bowden

From The Week of November 07, 2011

While most of us live unexceptional lives, lives that conform to the expectations of the societies that harbor us, some souls reject the safe existence and choose, instead, the more dangerous and difficult road of venturing out into the chaotic unknown. The virtues of such an unusual life are obvious. Not only is adventure forever around the next corner, but so too is the opportunity to delve into the moral and intellectual jungles that lie at the heart of man's nature. For to see man operate free of the strictures lawful society imposes upon him is to understand him in a way that we conformists will never comprehend. We cannot step outside ourselves to gain the perspective that the unshackled mind enjoys every day. While One Crowded Hour is an outstanding biography of an exceptional man, it is this lesson that underpins its tale.

Born into the economically depressed rural Australia of the early 1930s, Neil Davis shrugged off the life of a farmer, proscribed to him by family and birth, to become one of the 20th century's most notable combat cameramen. An accomplished athlete and sportsmen, Davis could have lived comfortably, firmly ensconced in an orderly nation with abundant resources and a respect for the law. Instead, he traded the commonwealth for the adventure and bustle of southeast Asia where, for two, blood-soaked decades, he covered the Vietnam War. Not only was Davis often positioned in the front-lines of combat, he was, for most of his career, a one-man team, writing, shooting and narrating two to three minute segments for broadcast on the major news organizations in Australia, Britain and the United States. His work captured some of the war's most memorable moments while earning a reputation for luck -- he escaped fatal wounds on several occasions --, for courage -- he appears to have never ducked an assignment --, and for fidelity to his craft -- he refused to stage any of his segments, believing that he had a responsibility to his viewers to capture the historical facts of the war. After countless near misses, after exhibiting a neutrality that earned him the respect of both capitalists and communists, after seeing the world and immersing himself in its many cultures, Neil Davis amazing career was abruptly ended in 1985 when he was gunned down during a forgettable incident in one of Thailand's many, forgettable coupes.

One Crowded Hour is Mr. Bowden's chronicle of the remarkable life of his friend and colleague. Compiled from Davis' diaries and journals, as well as many hours of recordings in which the two men discussed Davis' unique career, Mr. Bowden not only educates us on the life of a man in love with both Asia and its people, but the essence of what it means to be a war correspondent trapped in the inferno of combat. Rarely armed, these journalists were called upon to carry and utilize heavy equipment in some of the world's hottest combat zones, recording the depravities of man while ignoring threats to their own safety. Though some spirits must surely have been shattered by the enormous, psychological pressures of such circumstances, Davis' numerous close calls seemed rather to immure him to the paralytic effects of fear and chaos.

But as much as Mr. Bowden's biography captures the bravery of the man's work, Davis himself is the winner here. The conformity he rejected, the objectivity he aspired to, and the zest for life he never lost rise above the sins of war and the logistics of war journalism to make this a well-rounded biography of the first rate. For Mr. Bowden chose to let Neil Davis be remembered through his own words and actions which were eloquent and remarkable. This is unforgettable work. (4/5 Stars)

Terrorists in Love by Ken Ballen

From The Week of November 07, 2011

Due to a confluence of unfortunate factors, most of us have a poor understanding of the powerful forces that impel radicalized Muslim's to commit acts of unspeakable terrorism. Not only do governments try to spin their populations on the shape and scope of events as they want them to be viewed, the western media, which is designed to be a check against the disinformation of government, relies far too heavily on said governments for their reporting during times of crisis. But while governments and newspapers may fail us in our attempts to understand, to know, we are ultimately our own worst enemies. For the human desire for a simple and logical narrative to explain the inexplicable, to make comprehensible the irrational, causes us to favor the half-lies of black-and-white scenarios over the truth inherent in complex and nuanced reality. This is a great shame because it leaves us to obsess over the explosive events of the War on Terror while ignoring the corruption and the hopelessness that makes it possible.

Terrorists in Love is a vivid, if unsystematic, attempt to understand the hearts and minds of men and women who have tried to martyr themselves for their faith. Mr. Ballen, an American prosecutor, uses numerous trips to the Middle East, over the ten years since 9/11, to recreate the life-stories of six reformed jihadis who, at one time, swore to devote their lives to the ruination of the United States. From the Pakistani military insider to the broken-hearted Romeo of Saudi Arabia, from a young Jihadi burned alive by Al-Qaeda duplicity to the Saudi princeling who is the genetic heir of the sect of Islam that spiritually sustains Jihadis, the author takes his readers on a journey through Saudi deserts, Iraqi cities, Pakistani camps and Afghani mountains in an effort to expose the tribal, spiritual and economic forces that plagued and radicalized his interviewees. These are their tales, their experiences, their thoughts. These are their whys.

While Terrorists in Love is a totally unscientific attempt to understand the motivations of jihadis, and though Mr. Ballen recognizes this when he argues that it is dangerous to extrapolate thematic commonalities from a half-dozen martyrs from a pool of hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of willing suicide bombers, there can be no doubt that this is a stirring work which goes a long way to shedding light on the soul-crushing conditions that nourish radicals. Presuming that resources are not vanishingly scarce, humans, generally, live in peaceful coexistence with one another. However, take away their hope of advancement through society, strip them of their trust in justice to make life lawful, and deprive them of their belief that stagnant societies can change for the better and you will have smashed their dreams for a better tomorrow. Without hope to sustain us through life's inevitable setbacks, we lack any means of guarding ourselves against the acute pains of disappointment and despair. In the midst of such bleakness, some of us will inevitably conclude that they have nothing to lose, that they might as well throw their lives away for someone else's war.

Terrorists in Love is a multifaceted biography that forsakes academic rigor for a poignant, human story. We all want to live free of the fetters of corruption, illegality and institutionalized rent-seeking. We all want to thrive on our own merits, unburdened by the inertia of government. When that proves to be impossible, we search for someone to blame. Unfortunately for the West, it's our turn to be the great Satan. But even more unfortunately for the world, that humans are willing to obliterate themselves for any cause suggests that deep, systemic problems exist in all of Earth's societies. Mr. Ballen's vivid portraits of these six reformed jihadis may not aid anyone in preventing the next terrorist attack, but at least, in reading it, we will better understand the complex and existential motives that drive human beings to be terrorists. This is gripping and moving work. (4/5 Stars)

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

From The Week of October 31, 2011

Though corruption exists in every human society, some have proven more susceptible to its destructive charms than others. After all, only three things are required to institutionalize corruption into the very fabric of society: a weak rule of law, rampant rent-seeking, and vast inequities in economic and political opportunity. But while we have a firm grasp of how corruption flourishes, most of us don't have a solid understanding of how to uproot it. When a small group of people have tasted ultimate power, it is difficult to take that power from them without killing them in which case, more often than not, the killer becomes a usurper, not a reformer. But while debates on how best to eliminate corruption will no doubt carry on for decades, we know one truth to be self-evident, that systemic corruption has profound consequences for the poor, for the disenfranchised, and for the powerless. This is the enlightening and disturbing subject of The Yacoubian Building.

Nestled in the heart of crowded, polluted and frenetic Cairo, the Yacoubian is an apartment building home to all sorts of colorful characters who work, strive and scheme in hopes of bettering their lot in life. Some, like the powerful Hagg Azzam, a successful car magnate and drug kingpin, seek to further their ambitions by buying their way to the pinnacle of state power. Others, like Taha el Shazli, the son of the Yacoubian's doorman, hope to improve their lot by devoting themselves to respectable, civil service. But while their goals may differ, shaped by the limitations of their class, they all dream of becoming more than they are, of overcoming a system that is naturally opposed to granting them their wishes. Unfortunately, the inertia of the state, in all its pomp and privilege, prevents all of them, from the homosexual newspaperman, to the entrapped widow, from the westernized engineer to the entrepreneurial schemer, from advancing in society through legitimate means. For some, this glass ceiling is a crushing impediment from which they'll never recover. For others, it is a barrier to be broken, or circumvented, an obstacle to ambitions that must be overcome. For without the hope of a better tomorrow, they will suffocate in their own disillusionment. This is the story of the Yacoubian Building, its secrets, its depravities and the dreams contained within its walls.

Though the plodding pace of The Yacoubian Building threatens to keep its plot from catching fire, the various plights suffered by its cornucopia of characters provide the tale enough propulsion to reach critical mass. These ordeals are both the story's blessing and its curse. For given that this is a novel that concerns itself almost entirely with the notion of disillusionment, and all its associated emotional and physical torments, everything prior to the payoff is simply a means of advancing the characters to the point at which their hopes are trampled on by an uncaring state. Furthermore, being that it is told from the prospective of at least six main characters, some of which work better than others, the successes and the failures of the novel's intentionally fragmented narrative hinge upon the likeability of its protagonists. But while some, like Taha, do succeed in provoking powerful reactions, both positive and negative, others, like Dessouki, the westernized engineer, fail to be any more than filler.

To the extent that The Yacoubian Building exposes readers to the consequences, to everyday Egyptians, of state corruption, it is a momentous success. It marvellously details the myriad ways in which, in an unfair environment, the cruel can capitalize on the credulity of the good and the secrets of the different. However, the author has ambitiously staked the enjoyment of his novel on the effectiveness of a multitude of characters, spread out over a fragmented landscape. And while some of these personalities do the novel justice, others are little more than distractions. An interesting but uneven read. (3/5 Stars)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

From The Week of October 31, 2011

Though humans have many commendable qualities to recommend them, kindness, generosity and compassion to name a few, it is, nonetheless, a species whose members are obsessed with the desire to draw distinctions between themselves and their fellows. Be they differences in race, in culture, even in the clothes they choose to wear, distinguishing oneself from the crowd appears to be essential to the human experience. This divisiveness may well be nothing more than an outgrowth of that fundamental strain of individualism that underpins human identity. If so, more's the pity; for there can be few aspects of the human character that have lead to more hatred and discord than this otherness in which we take so much pride. For this is also the fuel that has powered the racial conflicts that have divided us for so long and for which our forefathers have so much to answer. Rarely has the pain of these foolish distinctions been better rendered than in The Color Purple.

Set in rural Georgia of the early 20th century, Ms. Walker's 1982 classic centers on the very different lives of Celie and Nettie, two black sisters enduring all of life's hardship in hopes of reuniting after a long and unwelcome separation. Celie, unattractive and uneducated, is deprived of her childhood when, after sexually abusing her for years, treatment that resulted in two pregnancies, her father arranges to marry her off to a man she only refers to as Mister. Her children gone, presumed by her to have been killed by her father, Celie settles into a joyless marriage, taking solace in her letters to god and in the handful of resilient women that make her life bearable. Nettie, meanwhile, who ran away from their father's shameless schemes, is taken in by missionaries, Samuel and Corrine, who plan to travel to Africa to preach and live with the people of their ancestors. Along with their two adopted children, the missionaries take Nettie with them, beginning a decades-long stay in Africa where Nettie is mostly buffered from the Second World War and the social changes it brings to the United States.

Having thought Nettie dead, Celie is shocked when she, and her lover Shug, discover that Celie's husband has been receiving letters from Nettie for years. Uncovering them in Mister's trunk, Celie is both shattered by this darkest betrayal and heartened to realize that her sister is alive and well in Africa. But while her attempts to write Nettie back prove unsuccessful, Celie is motivated to make something of her life independent of the men she was trained to please. In this, though the two sisters are separated by thousands of miles and dozens of years, they both overcome the poverty of their youth to become successful, independent women.

Told through a series of letters penned by the sisters to one another, and from Celie to god, The Color Purple is a powerful statement about the extent to which the marginalization of minorities leads to crime and depravity. Celie lives in a world devoid of justice. There is no police to help keep her father from abusing her, no court to annul her arranged marriage to Mister, and certainly no social services capable of delivering her from the clutches of her parasitical parent. Consequently, Celie is stuck in a life of servitude until the example set for her by two women within her community empower her to carve her own business and her own happiness out of an existence that has given her nothing and a country that has done its best to forget her. But for these revelations, Celie must suffer extraordinarily, a plight which no one should have to endure to achieve enlightenment and happiness.

As much as the reader is moved by Celie's narrative, Nettie's half of the tale proves less successful. While her presence is essential to the story's potent conclusion, her contributions, otherwise, are minimal at best. But for laying the groundwork for one of Celie's key revelations, her passages are little more than descriptions of a missionary's life in Africa. While the reader is informed about the nature of such work, and while it nicely contrasts Celie's ordeals, it does little to move the reader's emotional meter.

Nonetheless, this is riveting work. Ms. Walker's decision to tell Celie's tale in a thick, ungrammatical dialect allows the reader to create a sympathetic link with Celie that the novel richly rewards. At times chilling, off-putting, gripping and heartwarming, The Color Purple is notable, emotive fiction. (4/5 Stars)

The Whistleblower by Kathryn Bolkovac

From The Week of October 31, 2011

Though there are many candidates for the most grievous of human crimes, few make a better case than the betrayal of innocents by those who have sworn to protect them. We are not naive; we expect that, in the course of our lives, there will be those who try to exploit us, to entrap us in their schemes and their desires. But while we naturally have our guards up for these manipulators, we have no innate defenses against being blindsided, exploited, used and discarded by those in whom we have placed our trust. Though we can imagine the consequences of being knifed in the back by our sworn protectors, The Whistleblower makes a powerful case for why we cannot truly fathom this betrayal until we have witnessed its cost.

Approaching 40, restless and struggling under the fiscal burden of raising three kids on her own, Ms. Bolkovac, a police officer in Nebraska, stumbles upon an opportunity for a new and financially rewarding challenge. The year is 1999 and the embers of the ethnic conflict in the Balkans are still simmering when the UN rewards Dyncorp, a private contractor based in Virginia, with a $15,000,000 contract to resuscitate and re-train the police forces in the war-torn region. Offering lucrative salaries to cops, active and retired, across the United States, Dyncorp quickly recruits a stable of officers, including Bolkovac, and dispatches them to the Balkans as UN Monitors on six-month terms to bring some semblance of law back to cities and towns traumatized by an existential conflict.

Though Bolkovac initially finds her work rewarding, investigating sex crimes that would have otherwise gone completely unpunished, difficulties quickly accrue. Not only is she disturbed by the insensitive attitude of some of her male colleagues towards the women trafficked in and out of the region, she soon realizes that there is an almost institutional unwillingness to take seriously the crimes she is pursuing. However unnerved this makes Ms. Bolkovac, it's not until she discovers wads and wads of American money, in a bar she knows to have been peddling underaged girls, that she has uncovered proof of a heinous crime. For the money could have only come from the pockets of American servicemen and or her fellow American Dyncorp employees, the currency being otherwise unavailable in the region. Ms. Bolkovac's attempts to further investigate the matter are thwarted by her bosses. And when she refuses to go quietly, her time sheets are altered as a means of creating cause to fire her which they do without shame or mercy, never imagining that Bolkovac would challenge them in open court.

The Whistleblower is as riveting as it is sickening. Ms. Bolkovac details her journey from the rough but ultimately sane streets of Lincoln, Nebraska, to the lawless and exploitative alleys of the turn-of-the-century Balkans with commendable and relentless logic. The author clearly possesses an ordered mind, capable of holding onto important facts while pursuing vital leads as a means of solving difficult crimes. But while her personal narrative does not disappoint, the extent to which she exposes Dyncorp's depravity is breathtaking. She mounts a convincing case that Dyncorp made virtually no attempt to perform even the most basic of background checks on its employees before sending them into the eminently exploitable Balkans. Consequently, a number of opportunistic rapists and pedophiles effortlessly found their way onto its payroll. When this was brought to Dyncorp attention, rather than do the right thing and admit their errors, they swept the sins of their employees under the proverbial rug, discharging them with stainless records. It was only after Ms. Bolkovac's lawsuit over her wrongful dismissal that Dyncorp agreed to change its policies. And yet, depressingly, even these changes appear to have been only window-dressing. For Dyncorp continued to be plagued by similar scandals after sending its employees into Iraq at the behest of the US government.

The Whistleblower is, in many ways, an old tale. It exposes the depressing duplicity of corporations that care about profit more than justice and the governments that blithely allow them to do so. But though it may not be an original, it is full of rewarding irony. For Ms. Bolkovac had only circumstantial evidence of Dyncorp's involvement in the trafficking of underaged girls. Forced to prove her case in a European court, she'd have surely lost. After all, a few off-handed comments and a box-full of American currency do not represent smoking guns. It was the extent to which Dyncorp committed fraud as a means of wrongfully dismissing her that secured its conviction. A stomach-churning but ultimately rewarding read about the courage of one person to do the right thing in the face of revolting corporate malfeasance. (3/5 Stars)

Quartered Safe Out Here by George Macdonald Fraser

From The Week of October 31, 2011

War is so costly a weapon, in lives and coin, that it must only be used when all else has failed. For war is an insidious crime that runs longer and cuts deeper than its instigators ever imagine, scarring the world with its pain and ugliness. But even though we all, to some extent, understand these truths, war persists because acuteness of its cruelty fades with time, allowing populations to forget its harsh lessons. This is why we read war memoirs, to remind us of what has come and gone and of those who suffered in the embrace of that most destructive of human inventions. Unfortunately, in every way, Quartered Safe Out Here is incapable of teaching us anything.

Mr. Fraser, a British author and screenwriter, here, reflects upon his time in the British infantry during the second world war. Stationed in Burma, he vividly details the unromantic side of war: the suffocating conditions, the endless marches, the chaotic battles and the blessings of fortune which distinguish the living from the dead. Contesting the British forces in this inhospitable land are the soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army who, in their dogged determination and their suicidal bravery, earn both Fraser's grudging respect and his burning enmity. For many of their deadly traps and their bullets have found the flesh of his friends, striking them down far away from home, in a theatre of battle halfway forgotten by a world seemingly exclusively focused on the dramatic collapse of the third Reich. Even while Germany is surrendering and Paris is being liberated, the war grinds on in the east until, with some relish, Fraser observes the capitulation of the Japanese after their homeland becomes the first in the history of humanity to be devastated by nuclear weapons.

Though Quartered Safe Out Here harbors some wisdom regarding the everyday deprivations confronted by soldiers fighting far from home, it is, in every other respect, a contemptible memoir. Published some 50 years after the events it describes, it is full of long and detailed conversations between the author and his fellow infantrymen. Everything from politics to the age-old complaints of soldiering are covered in discussions which the author appears to remember with exquisite clarity even though he had no way of recording them for posterity. His unwillingness to so much as caution the reader on the authenticity of these conversations drains his account of credibility.

Worse, though, is Mr. Fraser's unwillingness to bestow even a gram of validity upon any viewpoint but his own. Not only is he dismissive of those who were critical of the United States' use of nuclear weapons -- would they have rather hundreds of thousands of western soldiers die taking Japan? --, he exposes himself as a hopeless fossil by decrying the extent to which the modern culture is in touch with its feelings. Soldiers of Mr. Fraser's day complained, sure, but they didn't need to see psychiatrists. They did not suffer from PTSD. They did their jobs because these were the tasks before them, the routines assigned to them. They did not blubber like babies; they accomplished their goals. They were real men, living in a better time. Such boastful blather not only ignores the heavier, psychological burden placed upon the modern soldier who, more often than not, is fighting an unconventional war, it assumes that 50 years of advancements in the understanding of the human mind is nothing more than an attempt to weaken man's indomitable spirit. This is backward-thinking nonsense from someone clearly incapable of adapting with changing times.

Some engaging moments centering on the poignancy of war, but has very little else to recommend it. A thorough disappointment from a narrow mind... (1/5 Stars)

Warriors Of God by Nicholas Blanford

From The Week of October 31, 2011

Though the roots of the conflict are centuries old, for the last 60 years, the Middle East has been awash in spot fires eager to erupt into a full-blown conflagration. Ever since the founding of Israel in 1948, a region-transforming event brought about by the flight of Jewish Europeans from the deadly antisemitism of the Third Reich, the region's Arab populations have felt aggrieved not only by the Jewish state's aggressive policies, but by the unconditional support they've earned from guilty, Western nations. Hobbled by their own societal inequities and angered by Jewish intransigence, the Arab Street agitated for war with Israel, to reclaim, in the name of justice and religion, the Palestine they believed they owned. But rather than bring about glorious victories over young Israel, these engagements largely resulted in crushing defeats for Arab nations, some of which even found their lands occupied by the very Jews they were confident of destroying.

Though the reverberations of these defeats have impacted on every Arab nation in the region, none have felt its brunt more than Lebanon which has given birth to a phenomenon that promises to have a mighty impact on the 21st century. I speak of Hezzbollah, the subject of this thorough and frightening history.

Mr. Blanford, a British-born journalist who has spent decades corresponding from the Middle East, here assembles the nearly 30-year history of the world's most successful and provocative resistance movement. Vivified by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon which required only nine days to reach and occupy the country's capital, Beirut, Hezzbollah, literally "party of god," has since become the region's most powerful paramilitary organization and Lebanon's mightiest institution. Financially and ideologically nourished by the Shi'a Islam brought to prominence by the 1979 revolution in Iran, Hezzbollah considers itself above the Lebanese state, operating unilaterally and without sanction within every aspect of its society.

Helmed by Hassan Nasrallah, a Shi'a cleric and Hezzbollah's patriarch, the movement, which seeks to sew the ideology of resistance to Israel into the very fabric of Lebanese culture, has been widely credited with forcing Israel to end, in 2000, its 18-year occupation of Lebanon. But not content with its territorial gains, Hezzbollah has since pressed its advantage by launching hundreds of rockets, provided by Iran via Syria, into northern Israel, terrorizing the Jewish population there and provoking a second war with Israel in 2006 which annihilated much of southern Lebanon. However, unlike every other occasion in which Israel's technological advantage has allowed it to claim victory over its opponents, Hezzbollah is widely felt to have strategically defeated Israel in this most recent conflict. For it has not only managed to repair much of the damage done by Israeli bombs, it has not only succeeded in acquiring modern weapons capable of holding their own against state-of-the-art Israeli materiel, it has mastered the art of psychological warfare by maximizing civilian casualties and by terrorizing Israeli populations and sending them to their bunkers with the mere firing of a missile. Given these advancements, not only must Hezzbollah be considered a significant evolution in resistance fighting, it must also be given the benefit of the doubt in future conflicts with Israel. For it has promised that the next engagement will not play out in war-weary Lebanon, but in the here-to-for sacrosanct territory of Israel itself.

Published in the fall of 2011, Warriors of God is an exquisitely detailed and up-to-date history of Hezzbollah as both a terrorist organization and a resistance movement. But while the reader is profoundly informed about the nature of Hezzbollah, its fundamentalist roots, its charismatic leaders, its ingenious structures and its frightening achievements, he is also educated in the anatomy of an occupation, both its destructive necessities and its inevitable outcomes. For here, with the benefit of hindsight, we are witness to Israel's foolish 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon and how its claim to such territory only fuelled existing resentments towards Israel from within Lebanon. Every wrong step, every provocative act on the part of the Jewish state only swells Hezzbollah's ranks, popularizes its ideology and deepens the divide between it and its sworn enemy. In this, the account is utterly convincing that peace and justice can never flow from occupation. There are simply too many destructive elements nourished by such conflicts.

This is a terrifying read. Mr. Blanford does nothing to dissuade the reader from the notion that all-out war in the Middle East is but a few years away. For while Hezbollah has had its individual successes and is fuelled by the ingenuity of its members and its leadership, it is only effective as a result of being sustained by Iran. If Mr. Blanford knows this, then surely Israel does as well which means that, as Hezzbollah grows more and more antagonistic towards Israel, it is only a matter of time before Israel considers it necessary to strike at Iran as a means of isolating Hezzbollah. And given that it seems likely that the United States would militarily support Israel in any conflict of this severity, there is little doubt that the next war in the Middle East, involving Israel, might well be the biggest and perhaps even the last. And at the heart of all this, Hezbollah... Exceptional work. (5/5 Stars)