A Thousand Farewells

Nahlah Ayed’s account of her life and career as a journalist offers a behind-the-scenes look at a foreign correspondent and what is involved in that job.

What works in her book A Thousand Farewells is the inside glimpse it provides of a reporter working under conditions of sometimes extreme stress and unpredictable or ever-changing situations. Ayed at one point tells a dramatic story of being attacked by an armed man in Baghdad.

This reminded me of a story from the book Hitch-22, where Christopher Hitchens writes about a time he was roughed up in Beirut. Hitchens also writes extensively about his experiences in Middle East in his memoir.

Ayed gives us a sense of what it is like to be in Cairo’s Tahrir Square amongst thousands of protestors or to come home to her apartment in Beirut and find that the windows have been smashed because of a nearby bomb blast.

She also writes of corrupt officials in several countries who not only accept bribes but expect them. Fellow journalists can learn that values and customs differ according to the country you are in and what is accepted as fairness in Canada may not be the same thing in Iraq, for example.

Journalists can learn other things from Ayed’s book as well, such as her use of Twitter to report on wars and protests in real-time. The book also serves as a warning of sorts, as the author relates how she got so caught up in her work that her physical and mental health suffered as a result.

Although Ayed does touch on her health issues, I think it would have been interesting to have more of the book devoted to that aspect. She is also fairly brief about her time at The Canadian Press and I would have appreciated a little more insight into what it is like working there.

The book affected me because of Ayed’s connection to Winnipeg; she grew up here for part of her childhood and returned here to go to university. I also one day aspire to become a foreign correspondent, so the stories that Ayed tells are of a personal and professional interest for me.