Assessment:
Baker somewhat misses the mark in his too-soon story of a small-time English journalist trying to make it big as a war correspondent in Iraq. The story follows Tom Monroe and his war reporter love interest, the preening Claudia, on their self-absorbed quest to capitalize on the conflict -- the Iraqi people and the war serve merely as a backdrop for their own personal and career development. Aside from a lack of character depth, the events of the story are familiar, and are only interesting when the action of the story pulls away from the protagonist to describe the places and people of the country. Though obviously knowledgeable of the conflict, Baker failed to show us what we didn't already know.
Date Submitted: June 06, 2016