stephen  d. leece

Mr. Magoo of the Middle East is fully aware of the criticisms levelled at Ms. Seierstad with her Bookseller of Kabul (2002) and The Angel of Grozny (2007) but no such criticism can be levelled at A Hundred and One Days.

Set over a period of three months from January 2003, Seierstad covers the periods before, during and after the Coalition invasion of Iraq.

Regretabbly there is no critique of the morality of the invasion, but there is much useful information about what the Ba’ath Party Ministry of Information was feeding international journalists with in the run up to, and during the invasion.

Granted, a huge portion of the book is about the boredom foreign correspondents face, with much sitting around hotel lobbies (usually either the Hotel Palestine or the Sheraton) waiting for ‘something’ to happen.

But this gradual build-up of tension and tediousness is worth putting up with culminating in the legendary press conference held by Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf in which it was declared that there were no American troops in Baghdad- until a journalist pointed out that two American tanks could be seen from the window approaching the building.

Seierstad accurately predicts the ensuing Sunni-Shia schism, that somehow or other Bush, Blair and everyone else involved in the mess could not. This is one of the few occasions where she lets her guard down and instead of reporting facts, lets her personal feelings be known.

These moments add a personal touch to the well-trodden proceedings.

This is not an academic piece, nor is it meant to be, it is one individual’s personal journey, and as such readers will either love it or hate it.