More background on Iran

I read Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden several weeks ago, and recommend it for anyone trying to understand the Middle East. It's a meaty book - I think most people would need a week or more to get through it. (I think it took me six days, but that was with allotting most of my spare time to it, and letting the dishes pile up in the sink.) But considering that it compiles much of what is now known about the Iran hostage situation of 1979-1981, I think it was time well spent.

Let me put that another way. When the hostages came home, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought that if I never heard another word about the whole mess it would be too soon. But guess what? I now think that what I thought I knew, based entirely upon news reports of the time and on conjecture by other people who were also basing their thoughts upon news reports of the time, I think I was badly mistaken about a number of things. (Imagine that. Neither the national/international news guys or I knew what was going on, especially what was going on in secret. What a shock ;).


Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam

Mind you, I'm not declaring myself any kind of expert now, but I think the book gave me a good reality check, if that's the phrase I want.

My to-read stack has also undergone some changes as the result of reading it. It now includes some of the books Mr. Bowden listed as source material. So far I've only read Guest of the Revolution by Kathryn Koob, one of the hostages, which also made me sit up and reassess what I used to think. Miss Koob's book is published by Thomas Nelson, and focuses on how her faith sustained her and grew during her captivity, but it also has rather a lot of good history and general observation in it.

The Bowden book I wouldn't hand to youngsters or refined maidens. The author is admirably restrained in his depiction of horrible circumstances, but he does, necessarily, deal with horrible circumstances (beatings, mock executions, aircraft crashes, etc.), plus he lets people speak in their own voices, which can get interesting -- some of the captives made a point of being offensive to their captors, for example. There's nothing gratuitously bad, but there is bad stuff I wouldn't dump on an innocent kid. (College kids are perhaps another matter. Books like this might help inoculate them against the utopianism to which they and many of their professors are prone. Maybe? A gal can hope, can't she?)

Miss Koob's book I'd give a solid PG.

Related post from May 3.