Anyone here been raped & speaks English?

by Edward Samuel Behr

An account of Edward Behr's time in China and South East Asia during the 60s and 70s.

Genres: Journalism, Nonfiction, Biography, History, War, Memoir, Africa

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1978

About the author

Edward Samuel Behr was a journalist; he worked primarily as a foreign & war correspondent. He began his career in the early 1950s with the Reuters news agency, then worked for Time-Life, serving as bureau chief in several cities around the world for Time Magazine. He then took a position with Newsweek in 1965 as Asia bureau chief, based in Hong Kong. Later in his career, Mr. Behr also made a number of documentaries for the BBC. He wrote several books during his life on various subjects, including a memoir which was published in 1978.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit, that outrageous title drew me in. The title of the book is a quote from an incredibly insensitive Brit TV reporter that Behr heard canvassing a cluster of Belgian settlers who were fleeing excesses by the Congolese soldiery. The quote basically sums up the trade of the war journalist: one has to be gutsy and not care too much whose feelings get hurt.

Behr is a self-effacing but courageous individual who has had the good fortune to live in interesting times. He was educated in England, joined the Indian Army and served in Burma during the war. Post-war, he served in Indonesia, and was back in India at the time of independence; he had busy time in trying to quell the post independence massacres.

Upon becoming a civilian, he longed for the action and chose the profession of journalism. The situations he encountered in this line of work form the bulk of the book, and it is fascinating! His travels took him to the Congo, the conflict in Algeria, China, and Vietnam, to name a few. He has met many of the great people of his day, dined with Mao and watched Churchill piss in a courtyard; the latter, he noted, wanting to record all details, had an enormous member.

The book is certainly not devoid of humour. I'll give you an example from page 138:

"An Irish soldier was killed by some Baluba tribesmen, leading to the probably apocryphal story, which nevertheless went the rounds of the bars wherever correspondents gathered in the Congo, that on being told that her son had been strung up by the Balubas, his aged mother had replied, "They shouldn't have done that. There was no call to hang him up by the balubas."

Behr is introspective in his work, and at times ponders the role of the media as instigators, manipulating what is reported to influence political decisions, and predicted the restrictions on freedom which we now enjoy in ever-increasing doses. It's a pretty good call when you consider that the book was written in '69, 50 years ago!

It's not a perfect book. If you read it, be sure to make note of Behr's sources because he has provided no appendices to this book, not even a Bibliography. A pity, because he mentions several books in the text that would be worth trying to find. And what about photos? Here's a guy who had a photographer with him everywhere he went, and he hasn't shared a single image with his readers! Unforgiveable! I wanted to have a look at Pochai, the female leader of a nomadic Mongol group Behr travelled with, but he has been selfish with the celluloid. Otherwise a really good book from a man who led an extremely full life.

[Feijoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this ages ago, but it sticks. It's a war correspondant's memoir, and provides a really good insight into the process of how people become inured to shocking things, and how they compartmentalize these experiences with geography. It's also funny, which is hard to do when you're up to your knees in blackened bloated bodies. Qudos!

[Tammam Aloudat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like memoirs of journalists and humanitarian workers. You would find in them details and stories within large historical events that would compliment history books and illustrate them with names, faces, and events that would make them more easy to imagine and understand. This is the case particularly when they are well written by a traveller who is observant and who has a good command of his language and imagery.

Edward Behr is a great journalist and has been a foreign correspondent in a particularly interesting period of the Twentieth Century. Having been a soldier in British India and in Indonesia in the Second World War and then a foreign correspondent working for Reuters, Time/Life, and freelancing his way through Pakistan, India, Algeria, Congo, China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.

He has been lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at things) enough to live through the wars of independent in Algeria, sit for dinner with Chairman Mao, and go through the rough battle fields of Vietnam war including witnessing the Tet offensive in 1968. He writes about all that rigorously but with a personal touch that is easy to follow and sympathise with. Unlike some others, he doesn't come across as a violence obsessed psychopath but as a sympathetic human being who likes and believes in what he does.

I bought this book for nearly nothing from a pile of used books attracted by the weird title (which is something he didn't say himself but heard being yelled in the Congo by a BBC journalist) and it lived on my shelf for a couple of years before I picked it up. I am always happy when such a happy coincidence happens and almost never regret stopping by used book places even when a good book only comes my way once every long while... this is specifically when a book like this, published in 1979 and long out of print, is the harvest of the day.

[Brian Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle of AHBR&SE is, “A Foreign Correspondent’s Life Behind the Lines.” But a more relevant subtitle for today would be, “Tales from the Age of Big Budget Journalism.” Behr worked for LIFE, TIME, NEWSWEEK, SATURDAY EVENING POST, and Reuters in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, reporting from hot spots such as India during partition, Algeria during the war of independence with France, the Belgian Congo during de-colonization, and the American war in Vietnam amongst other places. The title of the book, incidentally, is just a throw-away line Behr overheard from a BBC television reporter. The book is chiefly tales of adventure. You won’t find many great truths about journalism handed down from on high; but in the introduction Behr does note that, “For obvious reasons, which include the short attention span of readers and economic necessities of publishers, what becomes news is not always, not often, what deserves to be singled out for publication.” (p. x) I suspect that Behr, rather early on abandoned any motivations he might have had about changing the world for the better, and simply embarked on his career for the adventure of it all. It makes for a good read.

[Corto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting memoir of a Cold War journalist. It chronicles his life from his WWII service in the Indian Army, through assignments in several war zones including the Sino-Indian War, Algeria, Congo, and Vietnam. He offers interesting insights and anecdotes from those postings, especially about contemporary luminaries of journalism, literature and notoriety including Larry Burrows, Jean Larteguy, and Kim Philby.

[Fionnuala · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book with this title has absolutely no right being this funny. I don't think I've ever laughed as much at a book as I did with this one; I totally wasn't expecting it, but I had a great time.

This is the memoir of a foreign correspondent, so I was expecting some of the chaos and insanity it contained. I'm recently back from my very first trip as a reporter in a war zone, and even just that relatively tame taste showed me that in war environments (and in journalism in general) chaos reigns supreme. But I did not expect the wit and humour that it would all be described in, nor that the almost casual observances would be my exact sense of humour to the point where I cried laughing several times during reading this.

As well as incredibly entertaining and funny, it's also deeply insightful and informative. There's a lot of information in here, a lot of places and people and events, and every single page is fascinating. There was not a sentence I didn't enjoy. It's a real portrait of this kind of life: the hilarity and the insanity side by side with terror and grief and boredom and frustration and, as always, the petty grievances of people being people. Through it all, Behr's passion is absolutely evident -- you can tell there's nothing else he'd rather do in the whole world. It reminds me why I do this job myself, out of pocket, with no gaurantees of anything; the final page in particular made me want to get online and book tickets right away. What an absolutely incredible glimpse of what such a life looks like, and -- for those of us that way inclined ourselves -- a wonderful tribute to the lifestyle. I have read a lot of war reporting memoirs in my time, and this has shot all the way into my favourites.

[Jono · Rating 3 out of 5]

Partly read for the provocative title…though in the end not that provocative. The author is seeking to make a point about the dangers of journalistic detachment, but then falls into that very trap when describing his own experiences. An entertaining and partially enlightening read.

[Sagheer Afzal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book after seeing it reccommended as one of Mariella Frostrup's favourite books. What makes a good travelogue is the acuity and wit of the observer. This is why V.S Naipaul books despite their insightful observation are a little dry to read. Edward Behr's writing is more humorous and this is what makes the book readable. Unfortunately, despite some salient observations, this book does read like a diary. The quality of the anecdotes makes it worth your while along with some interesting glimpses into the life of a reporter.

[হাঁটুপানির জলদস্যু · Rating 4 out of 5]

অনেক দিন পর অনেক দিন ধরে রয়েসয়ে একটা স্মৃতিকথা পড়লাম। এড বেয়ারের জীবদ্দশায় পৃথিবীতে সামাজিক আর রাজনৈতিক পরিবর্তন ঘটেছে বড় মাপে, সেসব পরিবর্তনে তিনি তরুণ বয়সে সৈন্য এবং পরবর্তীতে রণভূমির বার্তাহর পরিচয়ে সাক্ষী আর সারথির গৌণ ভূমিকা পালন করেছেন। তাঁর দেখার চোখ প্রায় নিরাসক্ত—পুরোপুরি নয়, সাম্রাজ্যবাদের গু মিহি বাষ্প হয়ে লেখককে খানিকটা ঘিরে রেখেছে—রসবোধ তুখোড় আর পরিমিতিবোধ প্রশংসনীয়, কথনভঙ্গিটিও ভারি শানানো। সবচে বড় কথা, তিনি এমন সব ঘটনা তুলে ধরেছেন, যেগুলো সম্পর্কে আমার জানার পরিধি খুবই সীমিত ছিলো; বইটা তাই খুব উপভোগ করেছি।

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book about 30 years ago and thought it was amazing but not this time. I thought it self indulgent and shallow. As a former journalist myself I thought it helped those who like to criticise the press. He paints a dark picture albeit with humour though I’m not entirely sure he intended it. This work is the epitome of luck over judgment. There are so many more worthy hacks to read.

[Helix Bome · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dense. Feels like a great book for someone studying the history of journalism in its transition from popular photo reporting to mainly text pieces, somewhere in the 70s to 80s. Behr had insane connections and many an anecdote. But beyond the anecdotal, there isn't much, not of his life, his friendships, his professional development, nor in general context.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoir of a foreign correspondent and war journalist active in the 50s and 60s. To quote a review at the back of the book, “A brilliant, irreverent and often hilarious view of great world events of the last few decades.”
How much and how little our world has changed.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few chapters gave the feel of the author skipping over the interesting stuff. But the parts about Algeria during the OAS coup and Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, were pretty good.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating memoir of a foreign correspondent, Edward Behr. The title refers to a bizarre and callous approach of another journalist when Belgians were being evacuated from Belgian Congo/Zaire. He pursued conflict from continent to continent leading to some disturbing, some funny, some interesting stories.

Apparently the U.S. publisher insisted on changing the title to something completely innocuous, Bearings: A Foreign Correspondent's Life Behind the Lines, which according to his obit in The Guardian , led to a decline in sales. He brought back the original title in subsequent editions.

From his upbringing as the child of Russian Jewish immigrants in France and England to his experiences of wars in Algeria, Congo, India, China, Vietnam...he is uniformly observant and interesting. And he's not afraid to poke fun at himself.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like "The Farm" above, I bought this from Ayr's best second hand charity book shop, and surprised myself by managing to finish it. Perhaps this was because some of the best chapters were at the end and covered Vietnam, where the absurdity of what was going on and how battles were fought was really well conveyed. Books and accounts like this must have inspired "Apocalypse Now", and the author pulls no punches about the use and abuse of drugs throughout the conflict. I have a suspicion, however, that this kind of "reportage" is written to glamorise the life of the war correspondent, but Behr manages to rise above that (although he often bitches about rival journalists who "pretended" they were at the front line). So I suppose it must have been interesting enough but, having just finished it, I can't really remember that much about anything else!

[Ole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up for its weird title (which refers to a question shouted out by a war correspondent walking through a group of war victims in Africa, if I remember correctly) at a flea market, and read it as an entertaining collection of war correspondent anecdotes. Being an economist the one I've told the most often is how a small island ended up using Monopoly money during WWII - and how this became one of the most valuable currencies since the printing presses of all the other currencies were running hot.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Behr is the type of reporter (in other words, a professional smart ass) which I aspired to someday become in my misspent youth. This memoir is an enjoyable and absorbing read, and the author, despite his conversational and eminently readable style, manages to convey quite a large measure of information about some of the more (or less, as the case may be...) obscure events of the mid to late 20th century. Well worth reading.

[Jeroen Kraan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best reporter's memoirs in existence. Very interesting material on a range of African and Asian countries in the 50s and 60s including Algeria, China, and Vietnam. It has the added virtue of being only slightly self-congratulatory, and often very funny. It is not for nothing that the book starts with an acknowledgement to Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop", since the sometimes farcical scenes in this book often resemble the fictional one's in Waugh's masterpiece.

[Mike Willstrop · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly honest objective and brave report of war - in the days before some journalists paid kids to throw rocks at tanks to build up a story within budget ... And by doing so built up the war they were reporting on....

[Getout Ofmybookcorner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful glance back to what were probably the 'glory days' of overseas journalism - paradoxically, it sheds light on some of the least glorious events.

[Kate]

John Stackhouse in Mass Disruption says it captures the bare knuckled life of foreign correspondents in the sixties and seventies.

[Emmet E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of historic events