Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq

"Riverbend," the Iraqi woman whose "articulate, even poetic prose packs an emotional punch" (The New York Times), continues her dispatches from her native Baghdad.

Interweaving commentary on major events since October 2004, with compelling stories about her own life as well as her family's daily struggles, this is journalism from ground zero recording both occupation and insurgency.

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The distinctive voice of pseudonymous Riverbend shines through this continuation of her blog, from October 2004 through March 2006 (2005's Baghdad Burning won a Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Literary Reportage). Now 27, she offers an invaluable description of life in a middle-class, secular, mixed Shia-Sunni family. Alternating reports of attacks seen on TV and raids in her neighborhood with the mundane details of fuel shortages and infrequent electricity and water, Riverbend also offers astute analysis of the Iraqi draft constitution and American media, widely available through Iraqi TV and the Internet (her suggestion for a reality show: "Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in Fallujah"). She emphasizes how gender has become an issue when it never was before, e.g., election forms are all stamped "male." Riverbend's dry wit leavens her anger: after watching the 2006 Oscar ceremonies on TV, she proposes Iraqi Oscars ("Ahmed Al-Chalabi in 'Disappearing Act' for his magnificent evaporation from the Iraqi political scene"). Throughout, the blog insists that most Iraqis are tolerant; prefer secular to religious government; fear civil war; and vehemently want the occupation to end. (Riverbend's blog continues at riverbendblog.blogspot.com.) (Nov.)
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• Published by

  The Feminist Press

• Publish Date

  August 31, 2006 

• Print ISBN

  1558615296

• eBook ISBN

  9781558616349

• Imprint

  The Feminist Press

• Filesize

  584.80 KB

• Number of Print Pages*

  240

* Number of eBook pages may differ. Click here for more information.