May 22 2008
“Escape from Saddam” by Lewis Alsamari
Escape from Saddam by Lewis Alsamari is a pretty good autobiography, especially if you’re interested in learning more about Middle Eastern politics from an insider. It centers around Lewis Alsamari, a boy who lived in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign and who wanted to escape the country. It’s entitled Escape from Saddam even though he never met Saddam and was never influenced personally by him. From the title, I was expecting something more along the lines of him being a part of Saddam’s inner circle, but somehow getting out of the country and living to tell the tale. Instead, he met Saddam’s son once, for a brief five minutes on the street, and that was it.
I never really got heavily into the book, and I think it’s because I didn’t relate to Lewis on any level. It was a pretty gripping read, even so, and I did finish it in a couple of days. He went through some hellacious stuff, and it made me realize what a gigantic gap there is between our cultures. Over there, if your father is a part of the “right” political party, you got an extra 5 points on your graduation test, and if he served in the army, then you got another five points. He said it was common to have people graduate with 110% scores. Here in America, I can’t even fathom something like that happening. Never in a million years.
He does stay out of the political end of the Iraq war, until the Epilogue, which I appreciated - I didn’t want to read the book and have the whole thing be slanted one way or the other. His feelings are very strong on that subject - I won’t ruin the surprise and tell you what they are, but he definitely has an opinion! 
If you’re interested in Iraq, the political landscape there, and what it was like before the Iraqi War, I think this is one of the better books out there to read.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
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