A journalist chronicles his travels throughout the Middle East, discussing Cairo's seedy nightclubs, paid assassins in Libya, a mourner at the Ayatollah's funeral, and more. Reprint. 25,000 first printing. NYT.
Horwitz has the touch, the ability to astutely capture the ludicrous essence of an experience while filling in all the pertinent socio-historic details. He chews qat with the Yemenis, plays soccer with the Sudanese Dinka refugees and listens to an endless refrain of "You are the perfume of Iraq, oh Saddam" in Baghdad. Horwitz' eye and wit are equally sharp, and his book is an exceptionally good read.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Culture Meets Culture:
BAGHDAD WITHOUT A MAP is a series of articles Tony Horwitz wrote while trying to spark a freelance journalism career in the Middle East. The title is somewhat misleading as the articles cover a wide spectrum of Middle Eastern countries. Horwitz does not always have an assignment as was the case when he visited Yemen, one of the most unusual countries in the book. Almost everyone in Yemen is high on Qat, a hallucinogenic shrub that the inhabitants chew like tobacco. Horwitz, who's always game for... more info
When it comes down to it, we're all the same:
Bagdad Without a Map is the account of a journalist working in the Middle East for some odd number of years in the 1990's. In this book he published the notes that are not really suitable for any journalistic account, but as such it probably adds more insights in the area then any format account would be. It seems Horwitz is able to get more out of your average interviewee for most seem to be sharing more then they normally would, even in countries in which Horwitz's home land and religion aren't on the... more info
You'll embarrass yourself reading this.:
This may be the best travelogue I've ever read. Horwitz has an uncanny ability with words, to paint the scene and make the reader feel like they are there with him. I felt myself transported back to the countries I have visited, and can affirm that they were accurately represented. Horwitz is complimentary to the myriad cultures of the Middle East while being honest about the difficulties of the countries. And his adventures would be completely implausible, if they had been in a novel. The book is... more info
Read It And Find Out What The Arab Phrase "Cus ummak!" Means:
In the able hands of Pulitzer prize winner Tony Horwitz, Baghdad Without A Map is the sort of book that never lets a reader get complacent. Mr. Horwitz' prose simultaneously fascinates and dazzles with its up-close descriptions of the array of delights and wonders ever-present in the Arab nations, and stuns with its frank revelations of such Third World horrors as a Sudanese leper colony, the Iranian front in the aftermath of a "successful" Iraqi offensive, and the brutality of tribal armies in Yemen. It is... more info
