Stephanie Jane reviewed Being Kurdish in a Hostile World by Ayub Nuri
A memoir of war and violence
3 stars
Being Kurdish In A Hostile World was interesting to me in that it linked together several other books I have read over the past few years either about or set in Iraq. I had learned of Gertrude Bell's drawing up Iraq's borders in the 1920s (Daughter Of The Desert) - leaving the Kurds with no homeland - and of the Iran-Iraq war from the Iranian perspective (Iran: A Modern History), Agatha Christie's archaeological expeditions (Come Tell Me How You Live) and the unbelievable opulence of Saddam Hussein's palaces (The President's Gardens). I also knew from the American perspective of the American-led invasion (Imperial Life In The Emerald City) and had read a novel set during the resultant civil war (Frankenstein In Baghdad). Ayub Nuri's account of his life and work as a journalist and translator within Kurdistan and wider Iraq allowed me to connect the dots and to learn of …
Being Kurdish In A Hostile World was interesting to me in that it linked together several other books I have read over the past few years either about or set in Iraq. I had learned of Gertrude Bell's drawing up Iraq's borders in the 1920s (Daughter Of The Desert) - leaving the Kurds with no homeland - and of the Iran-Iraq war from the Iranian perspective (Iran: A Modern History), Agatha Christie's archaeological expeditions (Come Tell Me How You Live) and the unbelievable opulence of Saddam Hussein's palaces (The President's Gardens). I also knew from the American perspective of the American-led invasion (Imperial Life In The Emerald City) and had read a novel set during the resultant civil war (Frankenstein In Baghdad). Ayub Nuri's account of his life and work as a journalist and translator within Kurdistan and wider Iraq allowed me to connect the dots and to learn of the Kurdish people's plight.
This is inevitably a memoir of war and violence. The death tolls quoted actually left me numbed because I couldn't imagine these numbers of people dead or disappeared and Nuri's matter of fact statements are frequently shocking. He, of course, has pretty much only known war throughout his life and its normality for him is a poignant reminder of how much of our world hasn't been peaceful for decades.
I did find Nuri's writing style a tad too dry for a memoir. As a journalist he must be used to writing newspaper length reports, but I felt I wanted deeper insights for this book and to get to know some of the people better. I did get a stronger feel for individuals earlier when he talks about his childhood and adolescence, but once Nuri begins his translation work, I felt the narrative was disjointed - briefly recounting lots of events and travels when I would have preferred more space to be allocated to fewer incidents.
Overall however, this is certainly an eye-opening read. Seeing globally significant events such as the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime from the point of view of a person living in Iraq at the time - rather than reading Western-based reports - allowed me to understand more of the background. I can now easily empathise with the Kurds demands for an independent Kurdistan.