The author sent a copy of her book to me for review:
Melissa Burch, you are one gutsy lady! Besides putting yourself in harm’s way in Afghanistan, you exposed your sexual affairs to the world with this book. Not for nothing, you were engaged to George (he of the Greek Navy) whilst you had various one night stands with Pakistani and Afghan men, not to mention the lesbian affair in NYC. I know that you said that you found your ‘spiritual self’ via the teachings of the Russian mystic and spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff, but it still takes a undaunted attitude to write this book. My hat is off to you. I think your continuous concern about your up and down weight problem (mostly up) should take a backseat to your future treks. I found your journey to be very interesting but thought the prose could have been better and more descriptive. I’m also not sure that your filming and documentary problems had anything to do with being a woman. The United States populace was not interested in hearing that the Russian people were just like us during President Ronald Reagan's years in office (1981-1989). Also, the U.S. press wasn’t interested in stories about Russia and Afghanistan making peace (as you also stated)... the full court press was on against Russia! The U.S. wanted Gorbachev’s hated Communist Party dissolved and it was in 1991. If you wanted to do a documentary about the average Russian today, it would probably sell. Okay, let’s write a little about the story.
In 1979, Russia decided to invade Afghanistan with the purpose of ousting the Afghan president and replacing him with a Afghan socialist. The war lasted over nine years. Three years later, Melissa Burch (21 years old) would go to Afghanistan (supposedly for CBS) and film a mujahideen (a group engaged in Jihad) ambush of Soviets. The ambush was a success, but later, the Russians would destroy an Afghan village in retaliation. Melissa takes the pictures of the Russian helicopter the mujahideen shot down. Melissa is wounded. The commander of the mujahideen team bandages her up, and guess what? “We kissed hard, fast. I allowed lust to pull him inside me…” Enough said, you get the picture (sexual encounter one). Melissa leaves the team and gets a new mujahideen team lead by Commander Razik. Suddenly, Melissa starts yelling that she wants to be home for Christmas (she wanted to bring Dan Rather of CBS the footage on time). By causing a scene about going home, she accidentally saved the whole group from being blown up on a just mined road. “The mujahideen who had stopped us had just mined the road, not expecting any comrades to drive through at night. Had we arrived a few minutes later, we would have all been blown up. My intuition and my outrageous action had saved us.”
After returning home from Afghanistan, she moved to NYC to become an independent filmmaker. She meets Sarah Peterson (a fellow filmmaker, who will become Melissa’s lesbian partner at a later date). John, a British journalist of the BBC, contacted Melissa for the purpose of going…” back into Afghanistan to cover the alleged cease-fire in the Panjshir Valley, for the fourth anniversary of the Soviet invasion.” She has two contracts (from BBC & CBS) for the films. They are holed up in Pakistan awaiting to be picked up by the mujahideen to go back into Afghanistan. While waiting for the mujahideen team to arrive, a Pakistani guide has sexual “overtures” towards Melissa. “I could have screamed, scratched him, bit him. Instead, I let him enter me and then shoved him out the door.” Woe is me (just kidding). The mujahideen team finally arrives, and they are on the way up the 7,000 foot peak to Panjshir Valley. The team is lead by Commander Shaskti armed with Chinese weapons. Melissa tires on the trip up the peak. Another commander, Ahmed, wanted her out. The second commander, Baba Fawad, interceded. “Forget about him. You stay here.” How many commanders does a mujahideen team have? Guess who Melissa has sex with next? You guessed it...Baba Fawad.
I’m stopping my review around page 90. There is a lot to be learned about Melissa’s life in the ensuing pages (especially the rows with her alcoholic mom, who went to the famous Smith College and was friends with Sylvia Plath). I found this book to be refreshing since Melissa Burch unmasked her soul. That took a lot of courage. Can anyone be more honest? I didn’t think her book was five star, but Melissa Burch is surely a five star human being. I highly recommend this true story.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: I must say that I will never understand the Muslim religion. Yes, I know there are many different sects. In this book, it seems that it is normal to have four wives. Yet, it’s okay if the husband has sex with an American girl? And on page 101, we find…”In a refugee camp, a Pakistani male doctor was stoned to death after treating a woman alone in her tent. Sick women walked for miles to see the French woman doctor, their only chance for medical care.” Are you kidding me?
Even sicker were the occupying Soviets who, “A six-year old tiny, shrunken boy was lying on a table with a white bandage on his stump. Earlier in the day, one of the French doctors had amputated his leg. He had stepped on a shiny, green, plastic bird-like toy, a mine. The Soviets threw thousands of these anti-personnel mines out of their helicopters hoping kids, villagers, or a mujahideen would pick them up or trip on them and blow up an arm or leg, maiming them for life.”
War is cruel.
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