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3.0
There was a time when I had a little girl who I took to war-torn regions of central Europe (Albania during the NATO-Serb War). So when I saw an interview with Nathan Deuel about his book, I just had to read it.
Deuel's experience is far more deadly than mine--he describes Baghdad, Riyadh, Istanbul and Beirut in this short volume--but the truth that he gets at is one that many fathers will understand--particularly those that assume primary responsibility for raising kids due to the career demands of the mothers: fatherhood is an existential endeavor. It changes one's priorities and shapes the way one interacts with the environment. It finds dangers in places far safer than the ones described in this book.
Deuel has an eye for detail, and weaves clever observations with concrete elements. For example, in the chapter "Holiday in Baghdad," he understands his wife's changing role as he stands in the crater of a bombed-out Iraqi apartment complex, watching her report on the incident.
Deuel's experience is far more deadly than mine--he describes Baghdad, Riyadh, Istanbul and Beirut in this short volume--but the truth that he gets at is one that many fathers will understand--particularly those that assume primary responsibility for raising kids due to the career demands of the mothers: fatherhood is an existential endeavor. It changes one's priorities and shapes the way one interacts with the environment. It finds dangers in places far safer than the ones described in this book.
Deuel has an eye for detail, and weaves clever observations with concrete elements. For example, in the chapter "Holiday in Baghdad," he understands his wife's changing role as he stands in the crater of a bombed-out Iraqi apartment complex, watching her report on the incident.
For now, I regarded my wife (NPR journalist Kelly McEvers), who stood in the shell of a collapsed building, arguing with a soldier...
For a time, she would live and work in Iraq, and I would have not choice but to trust that she would find her own balance, that she'd figure out how to care without caring too much, to give herself over as much as she could to the project of this caring without leading herself or others into harm, remaining a wife and a mother and the woman she wanted to be--and the war reporter she was quietly becoming.
I slipped a shard of twisted metal into my pocket.
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