Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Poet of Baghdad

I picked up this book when I was searching for potential reading material to assign my students- not my refugees studying US citizenship, that is, but my undergrad students from Mizzou- but obviously I never assigned them anything from this book since I haven't even been teaching any classes at Mizzou for almost two years now and I'm just now getting around to the book myself.

It's a great biography of a famous Iraqi poet from the 60s and 70s; when Saddam Hussein was at the height of his power, Nabeel Yasin was publishing poems about the reality of life in Iraq under Saddam's regime.  In 1979, after being branded an enemy of the state, Yasin fled his country with his wife and son, eventually seeking refuge in London after traveling and living briefly in various countries.

The Poet of Baghdad, formerly titled Nabeel's Song, is wonderfully written and immediately draws the reader into the lives of its players.  What I liked about this book was that it did not take for granted the reader's background knowledge of Iraq, it's history, culture, and people, and did an excellent job giving good background information in order for the reader to better understand the lives of Nabeel and his family and friends.  I think this book would be especially helpful for most Americans to read so that they can get a brief history and cultural lesson concerning Iraq.  Interestingly enough however, I asked my coworker and his wife (who are both from Iraq) if they had ever heard of Nabeel Yasin and neither of them had; they chalked it up to the fact that Nabeel fled Iraq when they were both very young and they the grew up under Saddam's government, and it wasn't likely they would get to hear about Yasin from official sources.  Either way, the book is still a good read and one which you can whip through rather quickly since the story is quite engaging.

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