Thursday, December 6, 2007

HW 25: Intro to Baghdad Burning

In the introduction, blogger Riverbend talks about her day to day life in Iraq after 9-11. Her entire existence is turned upside down, and her and her family need to pick up the pieces and attempt to try to live a relatively normal life. Soueif translates her blogs, so people world-wide are able to hear this middle-class Iraqi girl's perspective.
She writes a blog of the destruction that is revolving around her daily. Riverbend is a clever girl, and it shows even in her blog's title, "Baghdad Burning". This already sets up the reader for the kind of struggle that is her life. She gives us detail by detail of what it is like to live her life. Ridgeway provides background of what has been going on in Iraq over the last four years,which has lead Riverbend to this turmoil. Ridgeway explains that events like the Gulf War are what lead to the mess that is the Middle East today.
After glossing over the book, I'm actually really excited to get into it. It seems like this girl has a lot to say, and it'll be interesting to read from the perspective of someone who is living it, rather than a biased view that you tend to get from main-stream media.

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