The cabdriver, born in Somalia in 1978, was wearing stylish sunglasses and a light-pink shirt. We talked about the hardships of being a cabdriver. "Irritating dealing with human beings sometimes," he said. He talked about leaving Somalia in the early '90s during what he referred to as the war between America and Somalia, which I asked him to explain to me. "I wish I could explain it to you but I have no answer for it," he said. When pressed, he guessed that America was in Somalia because the government of Somalia was raping, torturing, and sometimes killing Somalis who spoke out against their government. "There's no winning side. It's a crazy world." I said, well, if Somalia's government was indeed raping, torturing, and sometimes killing its own people, why not see America's side as the winning side? "But America does the same thing," he said. "They rape and torture and kill people." Good point, I thought. We got to the University of Washington and I tipped him well enough that he waved as he drove away.
I was there to see Mark Bowden, the Atlantic Monthly journalist, read from his new book, Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam, a thorough account of the Iran hostage crisis, which has, in more than 30 other books, already been thoroughly accounted for. It was "the major news event of 1979, '80, '81," producing a staggering amount of journalism. Bowden made the case that his is the first book to bring all the various narratives together. The finished product is "a very svelte" version of the manuscript he first turned in to his publisher; 637 pages, not counting the appendix, is the shortest he could make it.
Instead of reading from it, Bowden told anecdotes about the crisis itself and the research that went into the book, including all the interviews he was surprised to get. One of the most surprising was with Mohammad Hashemi, one of the hostage takers who later became deputy secretary in Iran's intelligence ministry. It wasn't until the end of their interview, Bowden said, that Hashemi's reason for granting the interview became clear: Hashemi and his wife had just built a new resort on the Caspian Sea, and he wanted some publicity for it. He told Bowden, astonishingly, "Perhaps, in a few years, we might invite back the Americans we held hostage, and they can all stay at the resort as our guests!" Bowden replied dryly, "This time, can they go home when they want?"
The audience's questions were excellent. I bought a book and got it signed, which gave me a chance to tell Bowden that I was conceived and born within the 444-day crisis, and that, coincidentally, 9/11 was my 21st birthday. He leaned back and he said, "You're the son of the global jihad."
Then I got in another cab and went to an art opening, where I was asked if I was carrying around a thick book just to impress people. Later, I ate at Sea Garden in the International District where, while washing my hands in the restaurant's bathroom, I started talking to a guy in military attire, a marine, who's being deployed to Iraq in September and who admitted that he's not looking forward to it.
