وصول متأخر لحفل شاي في قصر الأيل: الأحلام الضائعة لعائلتي العراقية

by Tamara Chalabi, علي بدر (Translator)

“It’s an admirable endeavour to have Iraq addressed by someone who is in so many ways able to approach it from two worlds. . . . Tamara Chalabi has the stuff, in every sense, that is needful to undertake this.” —Christopher Hitchens

In the tradition of Jung Chang’s Wild Swans and Bhutto Benazir’s Reconciliation comes Tamara Chalabi’s unique memoir of returning to her family’s homeland, Iraq. In this epic story of one daughter’s journey through the annals of her family’s tumultuous history, Chalabi’s powerful voice and piercing vision illuminate her country and its people as never before.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East, Memoir, History, Travel, Biography, Asia

598 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Kavita · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first glance, Late for Tea at the Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family appears to be a typical refugee memoir. But dig a bit deeper and it is something completely different. Tamara Chalabi had never been to Iraq until she was almost 30 years old. But her family had been rich and famous and powerful in the country for the past few generations. Though they were Shias, they flourished under Ottoman rule and then made alliances with the British.

The book is a memoir of the Chalabi family and of Iraq. It's a really great document of life in pre-revolutionary Iraq. Tamara writes really well and explores her culture quite deeply, giving us interesting insights into Iraqi family structures and interactions. She creates an idyllic world around her family's history and weaves in Iraq's history into it quite effectively.

But don't get too attached to the Chalabi family just yet. Despite the troubles they faced, most of the characters remained insanely entitled. From Bibi (Tamara's grandmother) berating her husband for trying to prepare baklava to many family members moaning about being 'exiled' from their homeland while living in the lap of luxury in London, you can tell these were not your run of the mill refugees. They somehow retained the wealth they always had and none of the family members went without. Not even without the expensive antique carpets that Hadi (Tamara's grandfather) collected!

Though most of the Middle East and much of the colonised world thought Gamal Abdel Nasser's triumphant victory over the Suez Canal was a turning point in the history of the world, the Chalabi family was raging about it. Nasser's massive land reforms and nationalisation policies as well as his affiliation with the Non-Aligned Movement put him on a different political league altogether from the aristocratic and opportunistic Chalabis who became friendly with whomever had power. Much of the middle portion of the book was a diatribe against Nasser, which is when I began to take off the rose-tinted glasses and look at the narrative more carefully.

And this would be required because by the end of the book, you get to the Iraq war - a war orchestrated by Iraq's greatest traitor, Ahmed Chalabi, Tamara's father. The author airily waves away all the accusations against him of embezzlement, espionage, and warmongering, and instead presents him as a patriot who only wants to help Iraq. She frames his role in the war as only an activist trying to rescue the minorities from Saddam Hussein. She omits to mention that it was his lies about WMDs in Iraq that gave momentum to the illegal American war. She also conveniently fails to even touch upon all the meaty posts held by Chalabi in the aftermath of the war - Interim Minister of Oil, Deputy Prime Minister, and so on, until he fails to win elections. But as Tamara mentions, this is not her father's book. So much so that there is very little about him and a lot of whitewashing.

The author has a great knack of choosing anecdotes that were interesting. Even when you were thinking that these people are the scum of the earth, you were interested in what they were doing. I would love to rate this book higher, but in deference to all the poor citizens and refugees of Iraq, who lost so much under British bootlicking royal reign that the Chalabis supported, and subsequent harsh reign of Saddam and the unnecessary war orchestrated by Ahmed Chalabi, I am knocking off one star.

[Inasirimavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the book I was really struggling with. It’s not because the book is poorly written or hard to read (quite the opposite), I was struggling with my inner thoughts and my own opinions of the people Chalabi wrote about, which were (most of the time) in contrast with the picture Chalabi painted throughout the book. But that is exactly why I wanted to read it and why I feel the need to write about it.

My first reservation towards this book stemmed from the fact that Tamara’s father is Ahmed Chalabi, who helped US government in launching war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (for more about him, you can read Aram Roston’s book The Man Who Pushed America To War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi). After years in exile, Ahmad Chalabi entered Baghdad in 2003 as a would-be president of the new Iraq but he never reached that goal. In Late For Tea At The Deer Palace, Tamara Chalabi trys to stand outside her father’s shadow. In the first pages of the book, she writes:

“Everybody asks me about my father. He has been labelled a maverick, a charlatan, a genious. He has been named as the source of supposedly faulty intelligence that led America into the war in Iraq. He has been called a triple agent for the Us, Iran and Israel. But this is MY story.”

Still, the whole story of Late For Tea At The Deer Palace is based on memories of Chalabi family, so keeping a distance from certain aspects of her father’s story and his character was just impossible. The history of the Chalabi family is quite amazing. Pre-Saddam, the Chalabis held high rank: they were prominent Shia Muslims, part of the wealthy power elite, occupying positions of prestige and responsibility from the Ottoman Empire to the time of the national government...

The main character of the book is Bibi, Ahmed’s mother, a matriarch who’s quite spoiled and a snob, but also very fierce and determined in controling the lives of the others in the family. Her royal status was always extremely important to her, and the event that might illustrate this the best was when the family temporarily relocated and had to live without servants, in an apartment in London. Bibi was enraged to see her husband, Hadi, making baklava for the family, telling him she “didn’t marry a confectioner.”

It was so hard for me to relate to these people and to feel any kind of compassion. Tamara’s writing is gripping, captivating, but her main characters were just not that easy to identify with. I felt more sympathy towards their servants who were shortly mentioned from time to time. I didn’t have the same experience when reading Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, although the story was also from the perspective of a privileged family and a person who was part of the elite. In Chang’s book I felt a deep awareness of that fact (being privileged fact) and the great modesty of her family, while in the story of Chalabis – there is not a lot of that, and that makes it a little repulsive.

All that being said, I still think this is an important book and I would recommend reading it. It offers ‘the other side of the story’ on many levels, primarily two: privileged elites versus ‘regular’ masses and exile versus motherland. It is a well-told saga and a whole century of Iraqi culture and history is at times greatly woven into the story.

(if you wish, you can read more of my reviews at Middle East Revised).

[Terry Mulligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's important to differentiate between how well parts of Late for Tea at the Deer Palace are written and how much I disliked the people Tamara Chalabi writes about, namely, her family. Except for her grandfather, Hadi, they're all unsympathetic, which begs the question: is the author aware of that or is she as entitled and out of touch, as the three generations she portrays, starting with the main character and matriarch, Bibi. At one point, when war breaks out, the family temporarily relocates and must live without servants. Bibi becomes enraged to see her husband, Hadi, making baklava for the family.

In much of the book, Chalabi does an excellent job of telling her family's story, while seamlessly weaving in clear explanations of Iraq's complex history, politics and ethnic grievances (often stemming from the Sunni and Shia split) over religion, territory, oil, leadership, etc.

Half way through, I began to wonder about the subtitle: The Lost Dreams of my Iraqi Family. For the Chalabi's, dreams primarily mean living in an intact peaceful Iraq. That peace, and one son's illness that led to blindness, seem to be the only things this family has not been able to control.

The Chalabi's were Middle Eastern royalty. They built palaces at will. After one was erected and Bibi didn't like it, they simply built another one. Perhaps it's the custom in Iraq, but the Chalabi's don't use their vast fortune to make life better for the less well off. They keep it within the family. The one exception was an act of generosity by Hadi.

In keeping with the theme of Chalabi's getting what they want, Ahmad, the author's father was obsessed with ridding his country of Saddam. Ahmad is also the Iraqi insider who's been accused of feeding the United States false intelligence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. Whether he's partly responsible for our rush to war and the subsequent deaths of hundreds of thousands of American and Iraqis, I don't know, but the Chalabi's always seem to get what they want. By Terry Baker Mulligan (Sugar Hill Where the Sun Rose Over Harlem)

[ManOfLaBook.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Late for Tea at the Deer Palace : The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Fam­ily by Tamara Cha­l­abi is a book which was hard to clas­sify. Part his­tory, part cul­tural, part fic­tional and non-fictional fam­ily saga and all about a bygone era.

The book chron­i­cles the jour­ney of the promi­nent Iraqi Cha­l­abi fam­ily from the ech­e­lons of power and busi­ness to hav­ing to flee from their coun­try. After reach­ing the high­est pin­na­cles of suc­cess in busi­ness and soci­ety, they were left with com­par­a­tively lit­tle when forced to immi­grate.
Focus­ing on Bibi and Hadi, the author’s grand­par­ents, Ms. Cha­l­abi tells a rich tale with an uncanny abil­ity to bring these stranges to life and make them, well, family.

I believe that Late for Tea at the Deer Palace by Tamara Cha­l­abi is the first book I read because I have heard of the author’s father. I rec­og­nize Ahmad Chalabi’s name from years of liv­ing in the Mid­dle East as well as his tem­po­rary high pro­file dur­ing The Gulf War where he was accused of many things, includ­ing being a triple agent giv­ing faulty intel­li­gence. How­ever, the story of Ahmad Cha­l­abis rise and fall is the least inter­est­ing part in this fas­ci­nat­ing book.

The first feel­ing that struck me while read­ing this book is jeal­ousy. If ever I’d write a book about the his­tory of my fam­ily, Late for Tea at the Deer Palace would be my guide. This beau­ti­fully writ­ten story mixes his­tory and his­tor­i­cal fic­tion (after all, Ms. Cha­l­abi wasn’t privy to per­sonal con­ver­sa­tion between adults) and tells the rich story of the Cha­l­abi fam­ily through an intro­duc­tion to Iraqi his­tory, Iraqi soci­ety and cul­ture in a mag­nif­i­cent way.

What Ms. Cha­l­abi did was take sto­ries we all hear as kids, how are parents/grandparents or rel­a­tives did some­thing amaz­ing or funny and weaved it into a book while giv­ing his­tor­i­cal con­text. How our ances­tors lived through times of trou­ble how they sur­vived (or didn't) and how the fam­ily name will live on.

This book should be required read­ing to any per­son who sits down to write his or hers life story for their family.

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

[Leora Wenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engrossing book on the story of an aristocratic family in Iraq, the book is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the history of the Middle East in the past century. Although it is biased toward the author's family, one can certainly appreciate the variety of types of people, attitudes, histories and experiences of those who lived in what was once Mesopotamia or Babylon and is now Iraq. Jews and Israel play a very small role in the book and gives lie to the notion that the Israeli conflict is what creates unrest in the Middle East.

[Tabark Aziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

لطالما انتابني الفضول عن شخصية الدكتور احمد الجلبي (وربما يكون السياسي العراقي الوحيد في نظام مابعد ال2003 الجدير بالبحث) وهاهي ابنته توثق تاريخ عائلتها في هذه الرواية الجميلة التي تلامس القلب والروح عن سيرة عائلة ارستقراطية لطالما اثرت في تاريخ العراق المعاصر خلال اكثر من مئة سنة الماضية ، تعاطفت كثيراً بالخصوص مع قصة "عمو حسن" اي الاستاذ الدكتور حسن الجلبي ومعاناته في الحياة ، رواية تستحق الخمس نجوم لولا انها مترجمة من الانكليزية مما افقدها روح وجوهر اللغة العربية في رأيي وهذا لا يعني ان الترجمة سيئة بالعكس ربما تكون افضل صيغة ترجمة ممكنة

[Rima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tamara Chalabi's 'Late for Tea at the Deer Palace' is a great way to learn about Iraq's history through family photos and enchanting anecdotes. But be aware that she writes from the perspective of the privileged, aristocratic minority.

One critic says it is a great way into learning about a large expanse of Iraqi history from the monarchy to the British mandate. But not all in Iraq were in privileged situations as the author so how can it represent the whole of Iraq. Even more problematic is that the author claims this too...

As a text, and as a reader with embarrassedly very little knowledge of Iraq, I did find it enjoyable. Learning about chalabi's family. But I did find it unnerving that she was presenting her family anecdotes as accurate but how can she possibly retell her ancestors history perfectly?


So the story is beautiful and tragic but flawed with narratology issues.

[Khaled Al Jaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read indeed. Tamara; however, devotes more than half of the book so mesmerizingly telling the story of Iraq since the early 1900s until the fall of the monarchy and her family’s subsequent exile all beautifully depicted in and told through her family's biography- all of the history, politics, wars, the fall of the ottoman empire, the creation of Iraq and the subsequent events are beautifully and vividly sketched through the story of this family, that is through the human beings who lived and experienced those events; most important of all the reader can clearly see how modernity affected the society, its people, norms, ethos, way of life. The writing style, lyrics, prose and words are no less impressive. Tamara then takes the reader to her family’s exile in London then Beirut where the civil war there forced them to go back to London- her father moves to Jordan then London then eventually back to Iraq. Events that followed the fall of the monarchy in Iraq are very well documented but not so vividly sketched as the ones before the fall of the monarchy. Also, I wish she had written more on the events that followed the fall of Sadam which is not the case- for that I recommend the following book for whoever is interested in the History of Iraq: Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Nevertheless, she tells a story that must be read to understand current Iraq.

[Miranda R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. An insightful read. At times it’s almost hard to believe this is non-fiction, not to mention the story of someone’s family. But to me, that just means it’s very well written. I cared a lot about the fates of the Chalabi family members and the injustices they faced, along with those of the Iraqi people.
As an American, this was extremely eye-opening. I have common sense, so I knew our government couldn’t possibly be telling us the whole truth, but reading an account of the plight the people of this region faced for over 100 years was shocking and heartbreaking.
A definite recommendation.

[Ali hussam · Rating 4 out of 5]

اخيراً ..
اكملت الكتاب الي المفروض كان فترة استراحة بين كتاب العراق واجزاءه
الكتاب او المذكرات هذهِ
هي كالدليل على اهمية هذهِ العائلة الكبيرة في تاريخ العراق
حتى اخر شخص سياسي مهم فيها
وهو احمد الچلبي السياسي الشيعي الذي وقف في وجه صدام وكان من اهم الدوافع لدخول الامريكان للعراق
المُهم عائلة الچلبي هي عائلة لا تقل عن اهمية السادة في تاريخ العراق
هذا الذي قاله حنّا بطاطو واكدتهُ تمارا

[Rima · Rating 4 out of 5]

مذكرات ممتعة للقراءة للكاتبة العراقية اللبنانية تمارا الچبلي عن تاريخ أسرة الجبلي في العراق وهي من الأسر الثرية الشيعية وذات الشخصيات السياسية والمشاركة في تاريخ العراق منذ الانتداب البريطاني. كانت رحلة قراءة شيقة مع الجدة "بيبي" التي كانت محور الحكايات والتي تأثرت بشخصيّتها كامل عائلة الجبلي ومن ضمنهم تمارا. وتمارا الكاتبة والصحفية هي ابنة السياسي أحمد الجبلي والمعارض لصدام حسين وأحد الذين عملوا على إسقاط نظامه بداية الألفينات. أحببت التعرف على تاريخ العراق حتى ولو كان من نظرة ابنة لعائلة برجوازية مرفهة ولكنها أيضاً تضررت بسبب مواقفها السياسية والمنفى وبقي لها ولاء للوطن مهما تباعدت بها الظروف والمسافات.

[Younes Mowafak · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب لا بأس به، وفيه تستعرض تمارا الچلبي سليلة العائلة العراقية الارستقراطية ذات الأصول التركية حياة عائلتها منذ العهد العثماني حتى دخول العراق العهد الجمهوري وهي تركز في السرد على جدتها (بيبي).
هنالك اخطاء تاريخية في الكتاب وسيعمل علي بدر بمهنية لتصويبها في الهوامش كمترجم للعمل.

[Kimm · Rating 5 out of 5]

To date, I have found no book that has captured my interest in Iraqi culture better than Late for Tea at the Deer Palace. It was simply amazing. The story is a personal history of Tamara Chalabi’s family for over the past hundred years. Her sensitivity and respect to those who have preceded her shows through every chapter of her delicate writings.

Chalabi explores how her family has adapted to the ever-changing political climate of Iraq. From the Ottomon Empire to the fall of Saddam Hussein. The Chalabi family is built on its connections to the community. Many of her family members have held prominent positions of influence in both the public and private sector. The men have each risen to their own measure of success—but it is the women in her story that fascinated me the most.

Chalabi is blessed with a legacy of strong women. Some dominating, some accommodating—all very aware of, and sensitive to, the political dynamics of the family unit, as well as the landscape of Iraq. With each generation comes a new set of personalities and relationships. Chalabi’s depiction of each person generates a vivid image of everyday life and happenings. As a reader, you celebrate triumph and mourn tragedy along with her family.

Something I can’t help but do when watching the news is pick a figure on the screen and try to imagine what their life must be like. I’d like to think that if I while I was watching a segment on the current state of affairs in Iraq and I picked a person—Late for Tea in the Deer Palace could be the story of their life. A story about who their family was and where they came from. What is it that made them so unique? All of these questions could be answered in this book. It feels as real as if we were sitting and having a cup of tea…with Chalabi telling me the story of her life.

I heartedly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Middle East. It’s not so much about the politics of the country (although that plays an important part in the book because of its impact on the Chalabi family), but more about how one extended family coped and survived through some of the most impacting historical events that this world has seen during the twentieth century.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tamara Chalabi is the daughter of the man whom critics of the Iraqi War believe gave tainted information on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Her story doesn't cover that story but of her upper class wealthy family through the generations and that of Iraq which was created in 1921 as a British protectorate. The family begins with a couple who live through World War I when the Ottoman Empire chose to support Germany and Iraq was the province of Mesopotamia. After the war, the British took over the area though during the war they had hinted at independence via Lawrence of Arabia. Hussein, from Damascus, was refused creating an independent country there and was allowed to become a king of Iraq. There was trouble because of the fact it had never been a country before and there are numerous ethnic groups in the area. The Chalabi family is able to keep its status and the men get employment in the government. World War II brings distress because of a conflict between people who don't like British rule and those who are against the Nazis. A treaty arranged for self rule contains some volatile provisions about which lands will stay British and what land will be Iraqi. It also promises that Britain will not support Zionist rule in Israel. Riots break out as people object including Iraqi Jews who are unhappy with the non-support of Israel. Later the royal family is assassinated in 1958 and the Chalabi family flees or hunkers down to survive. The next few decades are spent in Britain, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. They are trying to move back to Iraq but that is difficult too. People change and countries change.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a learning series with which my library is involved (Conflict and Resistance in the Middle East). We're reading about Iraq this fall, and this book is a memoir by a member of a prominent (or once-prominent) Baghdad family.

This book has much to recommend, but Chalabi's writing isn't it. The memoir grows stronger as the timeline hurtles closer to the author's own life, but still, I was extremely aware that she was relaying patchy stories told and re-told by family members. Occasionally the writing took off, but more often it was stilted and awkward. The inconsistencies of character (particularly with Bibi, the grandmother, who is portrayed as both forward-thinking and hopelessly dated) could have been handled far more deftly by another writer. It may be that the author was simply too close to this story (and oddly, at the same time, also too far away from it, having never lived in Iraq herself).

Still, I learned much about Iraq's history. I didn't realize just how recently it became the country it is now, and under what influences and interests the borders were drawn. The current events we hear in the news have a much stronger context for me now. The characters in the book also helped me better understand Iraqi culture.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book because reading it helped me learn a lot about a place of which I knew little. I'd love to hear if anyone has other recommendations for books that help us understand Iraq, particularly ones which are more literary.

[Sunni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for Gettysburg College's Middle East book/film/lecture series. As I started this program I felt like I "needed" to learn about the Middle East; after this book I felt like I "wanted" to learn more.

Chalabi interweaves her family history with the history of Iraq. Although her writing is strongest as a historian, her narrative helped me through the dense, complicated story of the country. This is not an easy read, I relied heavily on the excellent index and family tree supplied. Stay with it, don't be daunted by the confusion caused by so many men having the same name, or the disorientation in dealing with names and places in an unfamiliar tongue. It will start to get clearer.

She really unravels the foundations of the country, showing it from the perspective of an elite, educated, well-connected family that, in the end, is not immune to the political upheavals caused by both external and internal forces. She also gives glimpses of people or events that you might want to learn more about on your own (e.g., Gertrude Bell, Lawrence of Arabia, King Faisal, Taha Hussein). And of course Tamara's father, Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial figure behind the reporting of "weapons of mass destruction." She does not reveal much of Ahmed but certainly lays the foundation for what may have inspired his political actions.

This books is an interesting place to start your journey into the Middle East. It certainly lent itself to a lively discussion in our series.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love history but I really don't know too much about the Middle East. Furthermore, I don't know too much about Iraq outside of the wars of the past couple decades. Late for Tea at the Deer Palace gives a picture of the people of Iraq before the time that I'm familiar with. The Chalabi family was one of the most prominent families in Baghdad during the beginning of the 20th century. This family is not the average Iraqi family. They are privileged and some of the family members were in the upper echelons of Iraqi society, a very unique point of view. Eventually the country will become too chaotic for any of the family to hold on. Will they ever be able to return home?

I thought it was so cool to see the changes in the country of Iraq through the eyes of the family. The book covers from before WWI to almost the present day. This time period was a great time of change for the Middle East and especially for Iraq itself. It was so interesting to see the juxtaposition between the changes in the country and the changes in the family.

I do wish that we got to know more about Tamara's journey from hearing all of the family stories, writing down all of the stories and going back to where her family came from. I would have liked to know a lot more about the connections between where she is today and the family stories that she recounts.

At its core, this book is a really good family story perfect for those interested in the crossroads between history and personal stories.

[Ru · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book I’ll give you that and I rated it highly a year ago however after reading about Tamara’s father and his collusion with the US on the Iraqi invasion I’m feeling a bit disgusted about how well she painted these characters or omitted them.

To learn more read this:
https://www.bookforum.com/print/1704/...

[Esra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was very particular in that you learn about Iraqi history thru this very controversial, upper class family to which Ahmed Chalabi belongs, who is the Iraqi politician responsible of leading United States into war with Iraq, none less than the father of the writer. I surely learned great deal about the regions history from the book but somehow remain puzzled how could anyone be such a traitor against his homeland.

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing style is eloquent and the essence as an iraqi could be felt there. The perspectie via Bibi, Hadi, Hassan, and Thamina herself upon the events in Iraq, London, Lebanon is told in this book and left a heavy impression on how much war and being an exile has taken tolls on them. This is a good tale that combined all of iraq history and background of the Chalabi's families.

[Kristin]

I guess I'm just bored by stories about the day to day activities of the fantastically rich. When I read about someone--in real life, in the modern day--getting shaved by his butler in the parlor of his mansion, I can't help rolling my eyes.

[Claudia Foglein-Goins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book and very informative . Gives insight into what life was like for Iragis but toward the end of her tales she comes of slightly anti western /anti US which was off putting / irritating.


















s

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the history and insight into a culture of which I was quite ignorant.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A multigenerational memoir covering the 20th century in Iraq through the eyes of a single family. Chalabi does an excellent job of weaving personal anecdotes about the weddings and educations and minor tragedies of four generations of her family into the larger history of Iraq – as it passes from being a territory of the Ottoman empire, to a British mandate, to having its own king, to a military coup that declares itself a republic, to another military coup, to another military coup, to the rise of Saddam Hussein. As someone who is embarrassingly ignorant of modern Iraqi history, a lot of this book was completely new information to me, and Chalabi managed to make a huge number of names and political stances into a compelling, easily readable story.

I'd probably most recommend this book for that history lesson, but the individuals in her family that she chooses to focus on make for fascinating characters in themselves. There's the blind lawyer and his female note-taker, who fall in love; the shrewd businessman who chooses a charity over an investment and loses everything; the brilliant prodigy who dies of a brain tumor just before his potential turns into action.

While it's easy to feel sympathy with Chalabi's family's struggles and sense of exile (they've been banned from Iraq since the 1960s), they were an extrememly wealthy and politically powerful family, and Chalabi comes off as blind to their own privilege. Like, no, I don't actually feel very sorry that you no longer live in a literal palace while having lunch parties with the king. Chalabi's writing has frequent disregard for the agency and personal lives of their servants that made me uncomfortable. Still, I came away with a mostly positive view of the book, and would have given it 4 or 5 stars, except that it was only in reading other reviews that I realized her father is Ahmed Chalabi, aka "The Man Who Pushed America to War", aka the person most individually responsible for the lie that Hussein had WMDs in 2003. Would Chalabi – either Ahmed or Tamara – have a different take on that previous sentence? Probably! But I'll never know that side of the story, because Tamara literally doesn't bring up the topic at all. Which is the sort of... not quite misinformation, but deliberate lack of information that definitely gets you a star knocked off.

I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[Choc Rebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shai family story of the author Tamara Chalabi got published in 2009, so I was very late to hear the journey of the promi­nent bourgeois Iraqi Cha­l­abi fam­ily from the ech­e­lons of power and busi­ness to hav­ing to flee from their coun­try. This book provides an insight into the history of a part of the world that's been important since the dawn of civilization.
However, the last chapters deal with the US invasion of Iraq and Tamara Chalabi's feelings about it, which I found to be missing context and perspective, especially given the fact her father, Ahmed Chalabi, was the Iraqi insider who got accused of feeding the United States false intelligence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction which led to war.
(The man who pushed America to war by Aram Roston).
The author refers to these allegations in her prologue as a story that needs to be told by her father. But he will never say more than the occasional answer and parks that contentious issue as a shade above them.

[Anni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is well written in a captivating style and in the beginning its easy to get lost in the mesmering details and funny anecdotes of this elite family uniquely recorded from the Ottoman times. However it should be read critically, especially concerning the historical and political criticism and especially the role of Ahmed Chalabi, Tamara's father. He is depicted in the book as the national hero, however many Iraqis consider him a fraud, traitor and the reason Americans invaded Iraq in 2003, due to his false "intelligence" on nuclear weapons.

[Daphne Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to learn so much more than I ever knew about Iraq, and the Middle East back to the beginning of the 20th century. However, the author's (Chalabi) family's wealth and the fact that she is part of the family she is writing about makes it challenging to decipher the biases or agendas in the book.

[Amy Christine Lesher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of an Iraqi family from the 1900s through to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. I learned so much about the culture and history of Iraq. The Chalabi family are interesting and I would have liked to spend more time with them listening to their stories and seeing the places they called home. Highly recommend this book.

[Littia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and enjoyable to read, but I understand the comments by other reviewers who found some of the people to be unsympathetic. Still, most of them were treated lovingly by the author, as they should be given that she is writing about her own family history.

[Fabienne Bogle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An astounding compilation of geographical, political, and familal history. A slow read for me as I tried to take time to learn the history of a region with which I had no prior knowledge. Greatly appreciated the detail and writing style of the author.