The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan

by Jon Lee Anderson

Book Overview

New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson arrived in Afghanistan to report for the magazine ten days before U.S. bombers began pounding Al Qaeda and Taliban forces. His dispatches provide an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802117236
• ISBN13: 9780802117236
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

superb journalism

This is a very readable account of post-9/11 Afghanistan, and I finished it in the course of one day. I did notice, however, after reading this book and his current dispatches from Iraq, that the US itself is sort of an unseen factor in all of his work, implicit in the goings-on but not directly reported on. For example, during his time with the Northern Alliance, there is one description of a B-52 strafing a hillside and that is our one explicit clue that a massive campaign is occuring. Instead, we are graced with very intricate and impressive first-hand accounts of internal Afghani struggles, specifically concerning the assassination of Massoud. I think that Anderson's very noble intention is to prevent Afghanistan (and subsequently, Iraq) from becoming an abstract idea for Americans, by supplying readers here with details about life under siege. I would've enjoyed a bit more specific information about American operations and strategy, but I was not disappointed at all with what was provided in Anderson's account.

Not Hubris At All

Full disclosure: While I do think Lion's Grave is a tremendous book, and provides a unique insight into the way journalists cover zones, I should also point out that I'm Jon Lee Anderson's younger brother. Rather than trying to pad his numbers, however, my main motive for writing is in amusement over Hilliard's comment that it seemed a bit Rambo-esque (i.e. unbelievable) that Jon Lee would give a tongue-lashing to a group of heavily-armed 20 year olds. After having traveled through five war zones with Jon Lee over the years, I can assure you that this is exactly the sort of thing he does do! Ill-advised, perhaps, but not hubris - and certainly not Ramboesque.

Excellent Journalism

I had already read most of the articles in this book prior to buying it and frankly I found this collection to be quite interesting. I've read few journalistic accounts of the events in Afghanistan post-September 11, 2002 that seem to capture the ugly warfare, back stabbing, and confusing alliances quite as well as this one. If you haven't read any of these articles in The New Yorker, it's very much worth reading.

Good Book With Some Hubris

This was kind of a spooky book. The added e-mail notes at the start of each chapter gave you a real since of what it must have been like for the reporters in Afghanistan and their support staffs back in the real world. The book is basically the author's description of his four months in the country right after 9-11. The writing is so descriptive that it almost reads like a novel. The stuff he has to go through just to get the story out is something else. Also the level of danger for the reports, not even close to the front line, would make the average person question the line of work they chose.The book was not a full description of what was going on in the whole country or the war effort, just the magazine article like description of his travels and reporting. To be fair, the book could have used a bit of this detail as an extra narrative to really make the reader understand what the author is going through in the context of the whole country. One other small point, the author details a few instances where he lets some Afghan soldiers have a piece of his mind with them holding loaded weapons. In a country that has not seen any rule of law for 25 years and has basically been the worlds largest OK Corral shoot up, it seamed a little too Rambo like for the unarmed author to be insulting 20 year old thugs with automatic weapons in the middle of no where. Overall the book was very entertaining and interesting. If you are interested in this part of the world then you could do worse.

Unnerving, but excellent

I heard Jon Lee Anderson speaking of one of his adventures with an afghan warlord on NPR, and was instantly intrigued. His book, along with Thmoas Dworzak's photos offer an intimate look at the fractured afghan society, or lack thereof, that regular media outlets have not been able to afford us. You feel for some of the men he meets in his dangerous travels, yet these same men can disgust you. The various field reports are tired together with e-mail correspondence between Anderson and his editor. The sense of danger and urgency in these e-mails is at times astounding.