If you are interested in war, modern politics, news,
or human rights, you need to read this book. It
shows what warfare is really like, what happens to
people after governments make decisions. And it is
heartbreaking, but you cannot put it down.
The conflict in Chechnya is mostly forgotten and
then often miscontrued topic for most of the world.
Dr. Khassan Baiev's memoir sheds a light on the
horrors of life in Chechnya since 1994, what this
ghastly, genocidal war means for the common people
and Russian grunts. Baiev is a surgeon with a big
heart, and never turned anyone away. He explains
casualties from the rather disturbing anatomical
perspective of a surgeon, illustrating how fragile
bodies and how much pain people can suffer.
The book starts with his life before the war: of the
ancient and beautiful Chechen traditions, of the
extreme and often brutal Russian racism. As you read
the book, the cultural differences between the
ancient highlander Chechens and the rest of the
Western world seem dwarfed by how lovely their life
was, and how, as you read it, you can see yourself
in their world. What stays with you is that once you
empathize on this level, the eruption of war and
desolation is utterly heartbreaking. Because Baiev
lived it we see an intimate world being shattered,
not a headline.
Baiev (narrowly) survives years of war until both
the Russians and Chechen guerillas are out for his
head because his clientele includes everyone (and
mostly civilians) so he has to escape to America,
and eventually moved to Boston. His observants
description of coming to America, seeing how
peaceful it is here, how people of many races
coexist, and how a town in Vermont took care of his
family, gives you a deeper appreciation for what we
have in this country and that many take for granted.
I've never read anything that captures so vividly
and personally the heartbreakingly human face of
war. I think everyone should read it just to be
educated on something that is going on at this
moment, but that many people do not know about or
simply don't understand. It speaks of overwhelming
swaths of cruelty and evil, but also transcendent
moments of grace and joy, humanity between enemies.
Baiev treated anyone who needed help, so we see
souls, not sides.
What steals the breath from you, what made me rather
emotional, is how war is revealed here as so
useless, so tragic, so profoundly evil because we
are all people, and war destroys and perverts this
sacred life that we all share in. |
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