Over There: From the Bronx to Baghdad

By Alan Feuer

Book Overview

A very different kind of war memoir - a wry, sardonic and uncommonly funny account of one amateurish yet principled reporter's encounter with the absurdities of the second Iraq war Highly ambitious yet deeply ambivalent about the impending war, New York Times reporter Alan Feuer was sent to the Middle East to cover the US invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. He was not alone: over 700 embedded news reporters planned on locking step with the military, and multitudes more, biding their time until Baghdad fell, would follow in their wake. In this gin-soaked yet scrupulously honest look at a reporter in wartime, Feuer describes this international media swarm, not to mention the local opportunists and unscrupulous profiteers, to exhilarating and profound effect. In these pages you'll meet a desert Donald Trump, the stiletto-heeled Rania (who'll bribe aborder guard or introduce you to the Queen - all for the right price) as well as the Times bureau chiefs who decide what, and how much of it, is fit to print. Clear-eyed and ever cognizant of the moral quicksand that surrounds him, Feuer recounts the interactions that form the news in stylish prose wedded to a wry, dry wit.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582433275
• ISBN13: 9781582433271
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

I really liked this book

I found it very interesting to read this book! I have to say, I was delighted in his writing style, it made me laugh and think, and if he writes another book, I will buy it because I liked his style. It was very interesting to read a reporter write about what he (as a reporter) thought and did, especially in mid-war. How often do we get first hand accounts of the ins and outs of being a reporter? I had no idea how much lag time they suffered, nor had I thought about how intrusive the media can be, with the goal of telling a story to the world.I liked it!

Crossing lines rather than behind the lines

"Three journalists have died in Baghdad. . . American troops are killing journalists in a profoundly foreign country, under cover of a war being fought for savage, greed-crazed reasons that most of them couldn't explain or even understand." This is a quote from the late "Gonzo Journalist" Hunter Thompson, and Alan Feuer's book captures the same sentiments. A reporter is nothing more than a voyeur, Thompson has said repeatedly, and in this New York Times reporter's case, he has peeped on the underworld of the Bronx Mafia by eavesdropping in Cafes on Arthur Avenue and peeped into the shanty tents of the homeless camped out under the Throgs Neck Bridge. Then he is sent to Bagdad - and thrust into the chaos and confusion of a war he barely understands himself. "Over There," is not a book about the ill-named "Operation Iraqi Freedom" because the author (TR) admittedly does not spend enough time in Iraq to label himself a war correspondent. It is instead a book about a journalist who is parachuted into a gritty warzone and finds himself confronting the same greedy motives he has found covering the mob, dirty CEOs, and hardscrabble, down-on-their luck thieves, back in NYC. It is also a look at the politics of the world's most respected paper and may prompt some high-brow readers who sniff they "only read the Times" to take the hardscrabble reporting of other newspapers just as seriously, if not more so.

A Unique Perspective on a Mismanaged War

Due to the DOD's brilliant policy of "embedding" reporters, there have been very few books written by reporters discussing there view of the war in Iraq. (Where are you David Halberstam?)I was glad to see that Mr. Feuer was brave enough to write about his experience covering the war. Mr. Feuer's book is a classic fish out of water story. He writes an amusing, sarcastic and insightful book about his experience. His book does a great job capturing "T.R's" feelings as he unexpectedly finds himself in the action in Jordan and Iraq. If you are looking for a book that discusses the failures of journalists to adequately cover the war, this isn't the book for you. If you are looking for a great story about one man's journey into a confusing and awful situation, then buy this book.