Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

by Tony Horwitz

Book Overview

This wild and comic tale of Middle East misadventure is "a very funny and frequently insightful look at the world's most combustible region. Fearlessness is a valuable quality in a travel writer, and Mr. Horwitz . . . seems as intrepid as they come".--The New York Times Book Review.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525249605
• ISBN13: 9780525249603
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

funny/frightening

Some men follow their dreams, some their instincts, some the beat of a private drummer. I had a habit of following my wife. -Tony Horwitz, Baghdad Without a MapTony Horwitz has a pretty good shtick going; he follows his journalist wife (Geraldine Brooks) from assignment to assignment, across the globe, and then wangles freelance assignments in the new locale. In the meantime, he's produced three excellent books set in these widely varied ports of call : One for the Road relates his adventures hitchhiking through the Australian Outback; Confederates in the Attic is a very amusing account of Civil War reenactors in the American South; and Baghdad Without a Map takes him through the Middle East in the year or so just prior to the 1991 Gulf War. At a time when all of us are scurrying around trying to figure out what makes the Arab world so much different than the West, Horwitz is an excellent guide. Whether listening to Egyptians denigrate Gulf Arabs ("The Gulfies had oil but they didn't have a civilization to rival that of Egyptians, who were tossing up pyramids five thousand years before the Gulfies moved out of goat-hair tents"); getting whacked on qat, the narcotic leaf that is the national passion of Yemen; or describing the oppressive atmosphere of Iraq--he compares entering Iraq to "walking through the gate of a maximum-security prison"--Horwitz always manages to both make us laugh and scare the bejeezus out of us. His portrait of the region is one of unrelenting paranoia on the part of the Islamic world. The title of the book refers to the fact that no maps are available in Iraq, because Saddam is afraid to share such basic geographic information with potential enemies (which, of course, includes everyone), and, if that's not enough, even the weather there is classified information.All of this though is mere prelude to the fascinating, but frightening, closing section of the book, in which Mr. Horwitz and his wife travel to Iran to attend the funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeni, along with what may well, as he suggests, have been the largest crowd of people ever assembled in human history. This event turned deadly, with literally millions of crazed mourners crushing each other, then devolved into bizarre spectacle, with the faithful tearing apart the dead imam's corpse. But even here, with religious frenzy at its worst, Mr. Horwitz offers this nearly surreal exchange : One of the demonstrators peeled off to rest by the curb, and I edged over to ask him what the mourners were shouting. 'Death to America,' he said. 'Oh.' I reached for my notebook as self-protection and scribbled the Farsi transliteration : Margbar Omrika. 'You are American?' he asked. 'Yes. A journalist.' I braced myself for a diatribe against the West and its arrogant trumpets. 'I must ask you something,' the man said. 'Have you ever been to Disneyland?' 'As a kid, yes.' The man nodded, thoughtfully stroking his beard. 'My brother lives

Travel Guide to War Zones

This is the second time I will be purchasing Baghdad Without a Map to give as a gift. I have also loaned my copy to several friends, who all loved it. The book is best categorized as travel writing of the personal journal variety. Horwitz fearlessly puts himself in a variety of dangerous, humorous or interesting situations in places around the Middle East. But it goes beyond some travel journals in its insight into the societies he visits, and the people he meets. It is the sort of personal insight that travelers hope to discover on their travels. The sections on Iran were a revelation to me. Originally written before the Gulf War, it has a final chapter describing his return after the war. Now the Middle East is in the news again, and although Horwitz didn't travel to Afghanistan, his stories are timely once again. Not to mention that the book is a terrific read. Buy it for yourself or as a gift.

Funny and Insightful

Horwitz has delivered another very witty book that also enlightens. I have read his "Confederates in the Attic," an often hilarious writing that delves into the shadow of the Civil War in the current South.Like "Confederates...," "Baghdad Without a Map" is breezy, funny and illuminating. The author spent three years in the Middle East in the period before the Gulf War. Stationed in Cairo, this free lance writer visited Israel (during the Infatada) Lebanon (during active warfare), Iraq (during its war with Iran), Iran (during Khomeni's funeral), Yemen, the Sudan and The U.A.Emerites and Libya. In each country, he gets off of the beaten track to meet with ordinary people and delve into their daily existence.What emerges is a picture of life under Islam that as a whole is very much different from that experienced in the West, but one that also varies tremendiously among the individual countries. Each is shaped in a unique way by georgraphy, the relative lunacy of its political autocrats and history. The book serves to highlight some of the difficult problems facing many of the people in the region as well as the basic humanity and hope that can thrive even under trying circumstances.Horwitz does not laugh at the people he meets, in fact he is quite sympathetic to many of them he becomes acquainted with. However, many of the situations in which they are placed as well as Horwitz's response while diving into very different cultures from his own are often witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny in the hands of this skilled observer and writer. This is one of those books that will cause you to chuckle and guffaw even in places of public quiet like the commuter train on which I ride.His book is fast, very enjoyable and leaves the reader with something of substance after it's finished. A good book.

Jounalistic Adventures in the Middle East

Another wonderful read by the journalist who brought us "Confederates in the Attic"! This book, which chronicles his stint as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and other publications from 1990 to 1991, captures the ludicrous essence of his experiences in the Middle East.He's very much the central character as he chews an intoxicant called "Qat" with Yemenis, plays soccer with Dinka refugees in southern Sudan and travels with a pack of reporters to view corpses from the Iran-Iraq war. Through it all, he keeps a sense of humor and wry observation and, at the same time, gives insightful historical details of the countries his visits. The people he meets are memorable, his experiences are high adventure, and his viewpoint is something I can relate to.I enjoyed this book tremendously. Mr. Horwitz is an excellent writer and I love reading about his journalistic exploits. I learned a bit about Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Libya, Sudan and Lebanon. Of course it was just a taste. There's just so much you can pack into a small 280-page book. However, sometimes this is the best way to learn -- in small doses and including his personal experiences that are not likely to appear in any news story. It left me yearning to know more. And that is what it basically set out to do.The last chapter of the book was finished just before the Gulf War, but the author added an additional chapter in 1992 including his experience in Baghdad when the war started.Highly entertaining and very informative.Highly recommended.

A delightful travelogue

This was a tough book to put down. 'Baghdad Without Maps' works on many different levels: The author shares with us something of his personal life and the development of his career, in a humorously self-deprecating tone. We learn something of the pack-mentality of war zone journalists, and we learn something of the countries he visits, with the occasional crash-course on a nation's history or political system. All too often with this type of book, I find myself skipping over the boring historical stuff, but here, his writing style is so entertaining, I didn't want to miss a single sentence.Where Horwitz really shines is his man-on-the-street interviews. He has a knack for recording some real gems of dialogue, such as the Iranian who was chanting 'Death to America,' and then stopped to ask Horwitz for advice on visiting Disneyland. Some might see his approach to the Middle East as negative, but after all, he's a journalist who chases war, so the negative tone isn't very surprising. In most of the countries he visits, Horwitz introduces us to local people that are almost always portrayed in the most sympathetic of tones. The country that comes across worst in this book is Israel, notwithstanding that Horwitz himself is Jewish.Chapters cover Yemen, the UAE, Egypt, Iraq (he was there during the war with Iran as well the Gulf War), Iran (for Khomeini's funeral), Jordan, Israel, Sudan, and Lebanon. But the most memorable chapter of all is his brief visit to Libya. The only thing missing from this book is maps--only one for the entire book, which is not enough.