This is a book I almost used for my first-year seminar next semester. I learned about it through my aunt-in-law, who loved it. And it is quite good. It's certainly a whirlwind tour of parts of the world little known to most Americans, but that are particularly important in a post-9/11 reality.

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Product Description

At a time when Americans were so riveted by questions about their place in a newly hostile world and were swearing off air travel, Elinor Burkett did not just take a trip -- she took a headlong dive into enemy territories.

Her yearlong odyssey began with her assignment as a Fulbright Professor teaching journalism in Kyrgyzstan, a faded fragment of Soviet might in the heart of Central Asia -- a place of dilapidated apartments, bizarre food, and demoralized citizens clinging to the safety of Brother Russia. She then journeyed to Afghanistan and Iraq -- where she mingled with tense Iraqis, watching the gathering storm clouds of an American-led invasion -- as well as Iran, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, China, and Vietnam.

Whether she's writing about being served goat's head in a Kyrgyz yurt, checking out bowling alleys in Baghdad, or trying to cook a chicken in a crumbling apartment, Burkett offers an eclectic series of adventures that are alternately comical, poignant, and discomfiting.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #907725 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-01
• Released on: 2005-03-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060524432
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
"I'm not a danger junkie," Burkett (Another Planet, etc.) declared at the start of her Fulbright year with her husband in Kyrgyzstan on September 18, 2001. In a burst of midlife ennui, the two wanted to move somewhere where she could teach and they could both recharge their cultural batteries. The process of elimination led the pair to this small central Asian republic of the former Soviet Union, advertised as having a "liberal media" and "actively pursuing ethnic tolerance and democratization." When they arrived in Kyrgyzstan, reality overtook them. While appointed to teach "American-style" journalism, Burkett found students so shaped by Stalinist culture, it was all she could do to make them ask questions, much less stir controversy. Unable to resist a little adventure, she and her husband visited Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. When invited, Burkett hosted forums on the media, which usually turned into brouhahas critiquing potential U.S. intervention in Iraq. In Afghanistan, she met with a series of educated women who'd been terrorized by the Taliban and remained fearful. As Burkett walked in Kabul in her burqa, getting elbowed and bruised by men who "walked down the street as if the women simply weren't there," she decided the struggles in Central Asia were more an attempt by hardcore traditionalists to fight modernization than about religion per se. Few readers would actually want to face a dinner of roasted goat brains or dodge bombs on the highway passing the Tora Bora caves; reading Burkett's snappy, witty account nicely suffices.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Moving to Kyrgyzstan shortly before September 11, journalist Burkett and her husband decided to stay in this predominantly Muslim country despite some very valid initial misgivings. Not only did she opt to remain in Central Asia but she also used the opportunity to travel throughout the region, seeking out both adventure and information in an era of great uncertainty. Burkett's subsequent travelogue is a fascinating first-person account detailing the vagaries of life in a decidedly non-American--and sometimes anti-American--setting. Whether recounting personal experiences or interviewing a diverse cross-section of native Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans, Uzbekistanis, Kazakhstanis, and Kyrgyzstanis, she provides an intimate glimpse into everyday life in nations struggling to establish their own unique post-cold war identities. Interestingly enough, despite the tenuous world situation, she encountered very little blatant hatred directed toward herself as either a woman or an American. Though tourists won't be flocking to this remote and seemingly dangerous comer of the globe, they will appreciate viewing it through the experienced eyes of an intrepid female journalist. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Elinor Burkett has worked as a newspaper reporter, university professor, and magazine writer. A Pulitzer Prize—nominated journalist and the author of eight previous books, she divides her time between the Catskill Mountains of New York and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

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Customer Reviews

What a Kick, and What an Education
This is the rarest of books: at once hugely entertaining and hugely thought-provoking; both an exercise in pure fun and an attempt (successful) at genuine political and sociological enlightenment. It's a breezy travel memoir; it's a serious and timely look at the image and impact of the United States abroad. It reflects very much the issues that 9-11 raised, and yet it's also more timeless than that. Burkett bops through the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, China and, in almost every place, challenges the conventional wisdom about what's going on and offers less predictable glimpses and insights. It's a book full of hope; it's a book laden with hilariously cranky pessimism. It's terrific.

A new perspective on the Middle East...
Unfortunately, most Americans "learn" about life in Islamic countries only through the news media and only in the context of the War on Terror. Burkett's most significant achievement with this book is to provide a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in Central Asia and the Middle East - one that avoids the dual pitfalls of self-indulgence (for the most part) and political demagoguery. After reading this book I found it much easier to imagine life in the Middle East and felt I had gained a better understanding of what people in that part of the world love and hate about Americans. It's not a political book per se, but I would highly recommend it as supplemental reading for anyone interested in the region.

Unfocused and rambling
Elinor Burkett and her husband, Dennis, having become restless and wanting what might be a final adventure, decide they want to spend some time abroad. Not as tourists, but she as a teacher and he as her companion. They've been to Europe, South America and other usual destinations. Checking on the Fulbright program, she elects to become a professor, teaching journalism in Kyrgyzstan, a fragment of the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, it seems, they arrive at their home for the next year a week before 9/11.

The book begins right after the attack when all Americans abroad must have been frightened and wanting to go home. She and Dennis, like several others elect to stay. This beginning makes some readers think that this book will be the story of fear and frustration as they cope with hatred and tension over their being Americans in a part of the world that must hate them and their country.

But there is actually very little of that which is what makes her story amazing. During the months following 9/11, the two of them travel to countries in central Asia and the far east. The only real difficulties in their travels is getting there -- the beueaucracy and bribes, suspicions of minor border guards. Everywhere they hear much the same things from the people: America is arrogant and brought the attacks on itself by interfering in the affairs of other states. They should keep their noses out of other people's business. But why don't they do something about . . . (take your pick)" Never has it been more clear that America has such a love-hate relationship with the rest of the world.

In her teaching in the Kyrgyz university her own biases keep her at odds with the administration. In her mind, she is there to teach the journalism students western-style, in-your-face reporting. Never does she say that's what she was asked to do. But this is the style she knows and it puzzles her that none of her students understand, or want to understand, how to do things her way. Nor does she understand their willingness to accept the status quo, or their desire for a return to Communist control. Independence and individual freedom seem beyond their ability to accept.

What surprises most Americans who read this story is our lack of understanding about most of the smaller countries that the Soviet Union brought inside their boundaries. We tend to think that they must be grateful for the breakup of the Soviet state and attaining their new-found freedom. Not so. Everywhere the Burketts run into people who long for the return of order and running water. They accept governments of nearly cult personalities. And wish America would help them get back some of the things they miss most. But don't tell them what to do.

The Burketts' journey is an amazing one through countries where most of us would fear to go. This is an informative read about peoples we don't even begin to understand. But perhaps we can begin to understand that, although we value our way of freedom so highly, not everyone else can embrace it.