Review Eclipse Of The Sunnis, Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East

Amos, Deborah, Eclipse Of The Sunnis, Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East, New York: Public Affairs, 2010

 

Journalist Deborah Amos said she wrote Eclipse Of The Sunnis, Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East to explore the plight of Iraqi refugees in the Middle East. It turns out to be more of a travel journal about her trips to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Half the book is about Iraqis but the other half is about the politics and society of those countries. That means Eclipse Of The Sunnis really lacks focus.

 

On the positive side Amos was able to collect some interesting stories about Iraqis who left their homeland. Many wanted to go to the United States, especially those who worked as interpreters for the Americans. The U.S. government however threw up all kinds of roadblocks such as labeling people who paid ransom to free a family member as supporters of terrorism or those that fought in the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein as insurgents against the Iraqi government. There’s another section where the author talked to Iraqis in Syria about their cuisine which they mythologized to represent a past where their homeland was not so violent and divided. They talked about the recipes and how they had to get the right spices brought in from Iraq, etc. Most of the stories are about frustration and yearning and give an interesting glimpse into the lives of people who have fled their country.

 

On the other hand Amos goes completely off the rails when she talks about Lebanon and Syria. She barely mentions Iraqis in those sections and instead talks about things like Bashar al-Assad and how he tries to loosen controls on the economy and made overtures to the West when he first came into power. Other times she writes about Hezbollah’s increasing power in Lebanon. This is where the book turns into a travel journal where the author had to talk about all that she heard and learned on her trips and completely forgets that she was supposed to be focusing upon the Iraqi exiles in those states. It got to the point that when she went to one of those countries you could predict the chapter would veer off course.

 

The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the civil war that broke out in the country afterward created one of the largest refugee crises in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis never went home because of the government, violence, instability and the lack of rule of Law in Iraq. Amos had a good idea to write a book about them, but then failed to follow through with it. Yes, there are some good parts about their plights living in other countries but then half the book is about those other nation states. Reading about an American lobbyist trying to get the Bush and Obama administration to open up talks with Syria is really unnecessary and was the downfall of The Eclipse of the Sunnis.

 

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