Originally appearing at: Booklist
Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq.
Fassihi, Farnaz (author).
Sept. 2008. 320p. PublicAffairs, hardcover, $26 (9781586484750). 956.7.
As the senior Wall Street Journal Middle East correspondent, Fassihi is more than credible in her candid assessment of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On the ground in Baghdad both before and after Saddam’s fall, she focused her attention on the most overlooked aspect of the invasion: the Iraqi middle class. In her interviews with Sunnis and Shias, the secular and devout, those who are pro- and anti-American, Fassihi provides a startling compendium on what could have gone right if everything had not gone so wrong. Her frustration with errors of estimation and planning made by the U.S. government is palpable as she records the deterioration of goodwill. Through her careful collection of interviews and investigations, readers finally understand how the occupation became a war fought by multiple factions. What is heartbreaking is that it could have been avoided, and that this fact is so obvious.“It’s astounding,� Fassihi writes, “that the Americans seem so oblivious to their surroundings, with an inherently selective eye for what’s occurring in Iraq.� This is not politics but reportage written, at last, in a way that anyone, regardless of national origin, can understand.
