Sirens of Baghdad

This book offers some very new insight on what life is like for a terrorist and how their thought process works. The way this book unfolds is something that requires patience, but if you can make it through the depressing events, thoughts, and feelings, you will probably be happy as a reader from the West. Some important final lines included, "I'm going to tell you a little secret, my man. Keep it to yourself. I hate the West more than it's possible to say, but I've thought about it, and I think you were right not to get on that plane. It wasn't a good idea." Those words to author Yasmina Khadra really tell the story of how a terrorist thinks, and that they do hold somewhat of a conscious. In numerous passages in this novel, there were remarks that shed a negative light on both Western nations as well as Baghdad itself. A quote that stuck out in my mind belonged to a primary school teacher. Referring to terrorists, he says to Yaseen, "That's all you're good for, shooting someone from behind and running like a rabbit. And afterward, you think you're a hero and you swagger around the square. If Iraq has to be defended by spineless cowards like you, I'd rather let it go to the fucking dogs." Obviously, that powerful quote says a lot about the character people from Baghdad (or even the Middle East in general) are not known for.

The overall feel of this book is much bleaker than the other books we have read. It appears as if nothing is ever going to change the turmoil surrounding Baghdad's streets. Nothing but ill feelings toward one another cloud the city and a ray of hope appears absent until the very last passage of the book. That is where the goodness of people is most apparent in Khadra's book.