Abstract
of "Terrorist Reel In a Pawn from Small-Town Iraq" a book review by
Janet Maslin
"The
Sirens of Baghdad" alludes to both the charm of the city''s past and the
bleak reality of what it is at present. It is a novel about a young man Who because of tragic
circumstances became a terrorist. He left his home of Kafr Karam, to begin his
university education at Baghdad
but was sent back to because of the American invasion. The narrative starts
when the young man is in Beirut but flashbacks
to wartime in his small village of Kafr Karam where the villagers are
venting their present predicament inside a barber shop. "He is a monster,
yes, but he was our monster" one of the speakers describes Saddam Hussain,
"Look what they''ve done to our country: hell on earth," he adds.
"The world is run by the forces of international finance, for which peace
is equivalent to layoffs," comments a philosophy professor, "Dreams
serve no purpose when all horizons are bare," he interjects. Then the young
man narrates the killing of children by American soldiers, the wedding
bloodbath hit by a stray missile. The most horrid of all was when he was forced
to watch his father mauled and left helpless by a group of GI''s after a raid on
their village.
"I opened my mouth, but all that came out was something
that sounded like a wild beast death rattle." This event eventually pushed
the young man to the terrorist fold and conditions him to become a full fledged
pawn in the terrorist game. "Goodbye, Maarwan! We''ll meet again in
heaven" is not immediately understood but the narrator explains the fact
that Maarwan is a suicide bomber.
The
next Terrorist part narrates the momentum of the characters towards the final
"revolutionary mission". There is a twist in the ending that will
affect the outcome. The docu-drama style of the narrative gives plausible snap
shots of what real terrorists say or do. The novel has real passion coupled
with a blunt story line that in the end heralds real life situations. The
author uses a otherworldly narrator who is youngish and naïve to the ways of
the world. He is supposed to come from a small village in Iraq called
Kafr Karam. He is forced to assimilate and adopt to the realities of war.