Elvis Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.57 (792 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0307264564 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-09-08 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
MP said Fascinating look at Kurdish Iraqi life and American foreign policy. Klaus digs deep in this well-writen narrative that's part ethnography, part history, and part philosophy, detailing a fresh American perspective on a still-complex and still-relevant part of the world--Iraqi Kurdistan.. "Could have been great book if not for choppy writing!" according to Minehava. Over the last 1Could have been great book if not for choppy writing! Over the last 13 years I have spent 3 months every year with my in-laws, Iraqi Kurds in Erbil. So from my informed opinion I must say that the book is accurate about many points.But having said that, I must also add that the writing in this book is choppy and most points and ideas get l. years I have spent Could have been great book if not for choppy writing! Over the last 13 years I have spent 3 months every year with my in-laws, Iraqi Kurds in Erbil. So from my informed opinion I must say that the book is accurate about many points.But having said that, I must also add that the writing in this book is choppy and most points and ideas get l. months every year with my in-laws, Iraqi Kurds in Erbil. So from my informed opinion I must say that the book is accurate about many points.But having said that, I must also add that the writing in this book is choppy and most points and ideas get l. Teaching in Kurdistan Loves the View This book tells the story of Ian Klaus's adventure into Kurdistan to teach American history and English. He describes his entry into the country, the university and something of the environment. The author is a well prepared teacher and very observant about his students and the world vi
history and English in the thick of the war for hearts and minds.Inspired by the volunteerism of so many young Americans after 9/11, Klaus exchanges the abstraction of duty for an intimate involvement with individual lives, among them Mahir, a rakish Kurdish pop star whose father, an imam, disapproves of music; Ali, an Anglomaniac professor of translation devoted to the BBC, with whom Klaus has a public showdown over Hemingway; and Sarhang, Klaus’s bodyguard, whose interest in American history is excited by Mel Gibson’s performance in The Patriot. Among the Kurds, a perennially oppressed but seemingly indomitable people, Klaus encounters both openhearted welcome and resentful suspicion—and soon learns firsthand how far even a trusted stranger can venture in this society. In the spring of 2005, Ian Klaus, a twenty-six-year-old Rhodes Scholar, traveled eight hours from Turkey, via broken-down taxi and armed convoy, to reach Salahaddin University in Arbil, the largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan. These efforts occasion Klaus’s own reexamination of truths we hold to be self-evident, as well as the less exalted cultural assumptions we have presumed to export
Nonetheless, these vignettes and profiles add welcome depth to the too homogenous image of the Kurds and Kurdish nationalism in the Western media. Although well liked, Klaus finds his perspective frequently challenged by his students. . foreign policy, this last leading him to dismiss specific questions about Bush administration ties to the oil industry as unanswerable questions of conspiracy or fanciful tales of oil grabs. From Publishers Weekly Rhodes scholar Klaus chronicles a 2005 semester spent teaching the English language and U.S. (Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. The reader, too, might question the otherwise keen-eyed Klaus's largely unex