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As an assignment in journalism class, I read A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed. The book is a memoir of Ayed's life as a journalist for CBC and her life as a child living in a refugee camp.
The book starts out in Winnipeg when Ayed was just a child living in St. Boniface. She is happy and loves her home. Ayed and her siblings attend a French school and when their parents realize they know more French than Arabic, they quickly pack up and move the family to a refugee camp in Jordan.
Ayed's description of life in the refugee camp is vivid and detailed. She illustrates a place that I could never imagine having to live in.
Before reading the book I thought refugee camps were a place that no one would choose to move to but Ayed's parents wanted their kids to be close to family and it is easy to understand why they moved.
By having the story of her childhood in the book it really helps us to understand Ayed. It shows how every part of her upbringing has prepared her for life as a journalist. I think that most of the parts in this book work. All of the stories of war in the Middle East are necessary and Ayed does a good job of thoroughly explaining them.
I think that this book would be really informative for someone who is very familiar with the conflicts in the Middle East and the places they happened. Instead of just explaining the conflicts, Ayed offers a behind the scenes look at what life is like during those times.
I found the places hard to follow at times. I felt like I should have had a map beside me while I was reading so I could keep track of all of the places Ayed visited as a reporter. The book is very educational, there was so much detail about the people involved in the conflicts, and it helped me gain a better understanding of what happened in the Middle East.
I thought that Ayed left out some of her personal opinion on the conflicts in the book, but I think that is because she is still a journalist and she doesn't want people to feel she is biased.
At the core of the book is a story of life as a journalist. We can watch the news or read the paper but we don't get the stories behind the stories. That's why Ayed's book is so important. For any young person with dreams of being a reporter this book is a must read.
Ayed tells how hard it can be to get the story you need. At one point she gets badly beaten when she has done nothing wrong. She also has to deal with personal morals and decide not to interview a person who is morning.
The difference between this book and another memoir such as Life by Keith Richards, is that her life is just getting started. She hasn't retired yet or finished being a journalist, she still plans on doing this for the rest of her life. It is nice to read about things that are current, some of the conflicts only happened a few years ago. I found Ayed's book easier to understand because I was alive during some of the events she talks about.
Although her book offers lots of important lessons, I think the one I found the most applicable to my life is the importance of putting yourself first. Ayed witnesses a lot of terrible things in the Middle East, she is away from her home, and she gets badly beaten. I think it was so important for her to return home and take a break otherwise she would not be able to do her job the best she can.
I really enjoyed reading A Thousand Farewells. It taught me more about the Middle East than I learned watching the news or reading the paper and it showed what the life of a journalist is really like.
