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A Tragic Love Story Amid The Violence Of Iraq

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By AL HUTCHISON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

"I Lost My Love In Baghdad," by Michael Hastings (Scribner, $24)

Because readers of this book by Hastings, a foreign correspondent for Newsweek, get to know Andi Parhamovich on an extremely personal level, they may feel the impact of her death in a way far less abstract than most. She was more than a newspaper headline. She was the author's fiancee, and she was killed while working for a nongovernmental organization.

But this is much more than the tale of a doomed romance, although it certainly is that. Hastings provides a remarkable inside look at life in Iraq. He makes no overt political statements, yet pulls no punches in describing how many Iraqis behave toward each other and toward the foreign troops.

"It's a cliche at this point to talk about the honor of the troops, how warm and fuzzy and patriotic they can make us feel," Hastings writes. "But I was amazed at the bravery of these kids. They'd signed on the dotted line in the recruiter's office because they felt an intense need to serve their country, and they were looking for action and adventure, or they were struggling to make something of their lives. ... It was odd to see them here, so flawed and scared and macho and young, and to think of them as an applause line in a politician's stump speech."

Parhamovich was no soldier, yet she paid the ultimate price while doing good deeds and staying close to Hastings.

Al Hutchison of Citrus Park is a freelance writer.

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