Desert Fire: The Diary of a Gulf War Gunner Book

I was reminded about this book by the untimely death of its author, and reading it reminded me that we lost a terrific writer and vital truth-teller when Michael Hastings died in a car crash.

A mix of love story and war story, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story recounts Hastings' relationships with Baghdad and his fiance, Andi Parhamovich. Those relationships both supported and brutalized each other, and it's clear from the book that Hastings understood that. Both stories are compellingly and credibly told, though Hastings' understanding of his relationship with Baghdad and the Iraq War comes across as more detailed, nuanced, and interesting (even to him). That said, I wept through the chapters that describe his fiance's final days in Iraq, even knowing what was coming.

I get that this book was controversial for it's timing, just months after Ms. Parhamovich was killed in an ambush in Baghdad. It's full of love and longing for her, but also full of reporting and opinion about the Iraq War, Baghdad, the US military, US policy, and Hastings' own experiences. It doesn't read as exploiting a tragedy so many years after the fact, but I can see how it was perceived that way at the time.

Hastings' writing was accessible, smart, and no-holds-barred. He told the truth as he saw it, and protected no one - not even himself - from his harshest analysis. I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story is worth a read (or a re-read) now that we won't get any more of Hastings' unique voice.