Blindsided by the Taliban: A Journalist's Story of War, Trauma, Love, and Loss by Carmen Gentile

Author : Carmen Gentile
Title : Blindsided by the Taliban
Published : 2018
Publisher : Skyhorse Publishing
Pages : 240
Genre : Autobiography

     On September 9, 2010, while embedded with an Army unit and talking with locals in a small village in eastern Afghanistan, journalist Carmen Gentile was struck in the face by a rocket-propelled grenade. Inexplicably, the grenade did not explode and Gentile survived, albeit with the right side of his face shattered and blinded in one eye. Making matters worse, his engagement was on the ropes, and his fiancee absent from his bedside. 

    The subject of war journalists is one that has become more appealing to me of the last year or so. I try and imagine what it is that drives such people to go into some of the most dangerous places on earth to bring back stories for the nightly news. What I am starting to discover is they are a special breed of men and women than go in search of such stories. I also suspect that they become addicted to the job. It drives them like nothing else this heady mix of adrenaline and danger. I'm not really sure how to describe such people, somehow brave does not seem the right word in this point of my exploration on the subject I think that if they were not doing this they would find something else to induce the same feelings in them. 

     Before coming across this book whilst scanning the biography section, I can safely say that I had never heard of Gentile before. This is not to say That I may have seen his work before without realizing it. For me at least whilst I read the articles and watch the footage, it is not often that I look to see who the report was. I can't say why this is, for the most part, I think maybe it is because the story is the interesting part for me. So for me, this book was just as much learning about the man as it was The places he went and the event that would come to shape the rest of his life. It strikes me that he is the sort of person that should you have the opportunity to sit down with him and a beer he could tell you a million stories and each would be fascinating in there own way. I found my self gripped by each chapter as I got to learn so much not only about him but also about the life of an embedded war correspondent. 

      The book shifts about to before during and after him coming to losing his eye due to an attack whilst out on patrol. And whilst it may seem a bit skittish, due to each chapter coming with a header and date I never found myself feeling confused as to where I was supposed to be. For me, I think this is as close to the action as I will ever get. This can only be a good thing for my own mortal self. But as I read I could feel the heat and dust and the raw emotions he went through. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that through this and other books on the subject I have come to have great respect for what they do. Putting themselves in harms way time and again to show is what we can not see for ourselves. For me, I also felt the mixing of professional and personal life made the book more whole. We get to see that, what they see and the life that happens to them affects them on every level. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it lifts them off the page and makes them seem whole to me. 

     Blindsided by The Taliban is a book that held me right from the get-go. I only stopped to have to go to work and even then delved right back in on every break. We get to witness his passion and great desire to not only bring the news to us but also go to the place we would not dare. Als in some sort of irony or not the previous book on such a subject I read was about Marie Colvin another war corresponded who ended up losing an eye in the line of her job. Maybe the bosses back home should looking into giving the reporters some better eye protection.