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A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq
Scribner
February 2006
288 pages ISBN: 074328853X Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
When she arrived in Iraq in May 2004 as the most junior
member of the Washington Post bureau staff, Jackie Spinner
entered a war zone where traditional reporting had become
impossible. Bombs were a daily occurrence and kidnapping an
ever-present threat for American journalists. Yet "the
longer I stayed, the more Iraq felt like my home," she writes. Tell Them I Didn't Cry is Jackie's vivid and intensely
personal story of being a journalist in Iraq -- where for
nine months she covered the war from its center in Baghdad,
Fallujah, Kurdistan, and Abu Ghraib -- and of being
transformed, eventually, from a rookie correspondent into a
seasoned foreign reporter. As she grew accustomed to the realities of living and
reporting in Iraq, Jackie found that there was as much to
love as there was to fear. The frenetic and grueling pace
was an exhilarating challenge, and she discovered a powerful
sense of purpose in delivering the story of Iraq. Soon, the
Iraqi translators, drivers, and bodyguards that the Post
staff relied on to be their eyes and ears, and, more
important, to keep them safe, became not only her
colleagues, but also her close friends and tightly knit
family. Still, security rapidly deteriorated and Jackie
describes with chilling simplicity narrowly surviving a
kidnapping attempt and writing her name and blood type on
her flak jacket before covering the battle in Fallujah. By turns lighthearted, grave, vulnerable, and fiery, Jackie
recounts the difficulties of being a woman in a country
where women are marginalized and a journalist where the
press are no longer safe. She eloquently chronicles what
occurred behind her headlines as she struggled to preserve
her sanity, and sometimes her life, while also doing the one
job in which she had found true meaning. Jackie's account is punctuated by brief vignettes written by
her identical twin sister, Jenny, who watched as Jackie was
drawn further and further into a world increasingly fraught
with danger. Every morning she looked for Jackie's byline in
the Post, knowing only then that her sister had survived
another day. Through it all -- the violence and fear as well as the
moments of humor, camaraderie, and warmth -- Jackie Spinner
brings home with brilliant intensity and candor what it is
like to report on a war under exceptional circumstances.
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