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gadicohen93's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very accessible if difficult memoir. The most interesting parts were the beginning of the Civil War — the protests against Assad and the emergence of all the different rebel camps arrayed against him and against themselves — and of Hisham's time working at the cybercafe in Raqqa, serving ISIS soldiers. It was written well, in an open-faced, approachable way, drifting between his past life as a child growing up under Assad's regime, to his life as a student in Aleppo, to his friendships with fighters, to his struggles to survive in one of the most chaotic and dangerous milieus in modern times. It felt like a gentle, deeply human introduction to the past decade of turmoil in Syria. The pictures were beautiful and haunting, as well. I wish I could've read this in the flesh!
gilnean's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Gore, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Classism, Misogyny, Cursing, Grief, Violence, Confinement, Slavery, Blood, Torture, War, Deportation, Xenophobia, Racism, Police brutality, Gun violence, Murder, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Bullying, Sexual assault, and Medical content
Minor: Suicide, Excrement, Car accident, Homophobia, and Infidelity
nvocey's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
richardrbecker's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
If Brothers of the Gun by Marwan Hisham captures anything, it's the futility of trying to understand the Middle East. It's a place where revolutions are hijacked by secular extremists and/or terrorists, and those caught in the crosshairs are forced to choose sides — all of them wrong.
Take up arms and become terrorists. Defend their homes and become terrorist sympathizers. Leave the country and become rootless cowards.
In some ways, it's virtually the same story once told by T. E. Lawrence. His objective was always to make them stand on their own feet, but he could never influence them in peace as he could in war. Hisham says much the same thing. Once Syria followed the popular protests sweeping the Arba world, there was no turning back.
Somehow Hisham personally managed to strike a balance between these three options despite the danger of doing so. The would-be college student stayed home (aside from traveling to Turkey and Iraq) and covered the unrest for European media outlets. Most of his friends made other choices. Most of them were buried and left behind. A few die a different way, becoming unrecognizable from their once youthful dispositions.
Hisham covers it all. From the early protests to the ISIS takeover, and right up to a crumbling end as simultaneous confrontations with three rival coalitions became too much to overcome. Kurdish forces and their American allies, pro-Assad Syrian forces supported by Iran and Russia, and a Turkish-backed coalition of rebel groups. Except, there is no end to the conflict in Syria.
As Hisham notes: too many Syrians pick up the gun in the name of Islam, even if it means giving up their humanity. And in giving it up, there is nothing left to get back. The lesson makes it much more than someone's account of history. It's a warning for all of us.
Take up arms and become terrorists. Defend their homes and become terrorist sympathizers. Leave the country and become rootless cowards.
In some ways, it's virtually the same story once told by T. E. Lawrence. His objective was always to make them stand on their own feet, but he could never influence them in peace as he could in war. Hisham says much the same thing. Once Syria followed the popular protests sweeping the Arba world, there was no turning back.
Somehow Hisham personally managed to strike a balance between these three options despite the danger of doing so. The would-be college student stayed home (aside from traveling to Turkey and Iraq) and covered the unrest for European media outlets. Most of his friends made other choices. Most of them were buried and left behind. A few die a different way, becoming unrecognizable from their once youthful dispositions.
Hisham covers it all. From the early protests to the ISIS takeover, and right up to a crumbling end as simultaneous confrontations with three rival coalitions became too much to overcome. Kurdish forces and their American allies, pro-Assad Syrian forces supported by Iran and Russia, and a Turkish-backed coalition of rebel groups. Except, there is no end to the conflict in Syria.
As Hisham notes: too many Syrians pick up the gun in the name of Islam, even if it means giving up their humanity. And in giving it up, there is nothing left to get back. The lesson makes it much more than someone's account of history. It's a warning for all of us.
olivetales's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
5.0
This is an incredible book and an outstanding memoir. The author relates his experiences with crushing detail, exactitude, and also a great deal of compassion and nuance. I never felt that he was casting judgements against people caught up in terrible circumstances, and he articulated the ways that peoples confined options placed them in impossible situations. The illustrations are also beautiful. Giving this a 5 ranking also because it feels to be an important book-- a rare account of a conflict that has been written about from imperialized perspectives far too often.
silodear's review against another edition
I need to give this book another try as an actual book. The reader/narrator of this audiobook was so distracting to me. It was like he was reading in the style of a bohemian poet. Even when I sped him up, I just couldn't do it. Made it to chapter 11.
bobbo49's review against another edition
4.0
An intensely personal, powerful rendering of the Syrian civil war and its terrible impact on a young man from Raqqa, both daily and over the course of his life. Together with the graphic illustrations by Molly Crabapple, Hisham's portrait of the toll of the religious and political catastrophe that has resulted in the emigration of his family - and millions of others - is a timely vision of the Syrian reality that everyone in the world should know, as we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.