Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq
by: Farnaz Fassihi
Published by: Public Affairs
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Reviewed by Muhammed Hassanali
The war in Iraq has little impact on the lives of most of us living in the United States. We go about our daily lives hearing about the mounting death toll and other statistics about the war. We are largely disconnected from the Iraqi civilians that make up the statistics that we hear on the news.
Most of the books on the Iraqi invasion focus on political developments, policy, and military experiences in invading and stabilizing Iraq. Unlike other books, Waiting for an Ordinary Day delves into the war’s impact on the daily life of ordinary Iraqis. It is a highly personal and disturbing account portraying an embittered civilian population alienated by the breakdown of law and order, the destruction of the basic infrastructure, and the impact of an occupation army fighting Iraqi insurgents. Fassihi writes: “While chaos reigns, the occupying army reassures you that they have [sic] come to bring you democracy and freedom.”
Wall Street Journal readers have come to expect well-written and edited stories. While Fassihi is a reporter for the Journal, unfortunately this book is not as well edited as is the journal. At the most basic level, obvious spelling and grammatical errors have repeatedly crept into the text. Even more frequent are awkward phrases that at times don’t make sense. While each of the chapters is individually compelling, as a group they do not strongly contribute to the overall narrative, thus the reading is more fragmented. The book does not cover events past the end of 2005, so it superficially covers the Shiite-Sunni violence in 2006, the subsequent changes brought about by the recent surge in American troops, the Sunni awakening and a Shiite cease-fire. There is still room for more chronicling.
The book’s greatest strength is that it portrays the impact of our invasion and occupation on Iraqi civilians. Beyond death tolls and displacements, it chronicles the heart-wrenching damage to their social fabric and the dislodging of their soul – already scarred by a repressive regime and crippling sanctions.
Despite its lack of editing/proofreading shortcomings, Waiting for an Ordinary Day is a book well worth reading.
Armchair Interviews says: The title says it all for the people living in a war-torn country.
From our armchair to yours...
