My Father's Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan

My Father's Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan by Hiner Saleem (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 99 pp., $17). Since the Iraq war, the history of Iraqi Kurds under Saddam Hussein and their movement for independence has taken on particular relevance. Though that makes Hiner Saleem's memoir of his childhood in 1970s Iraq timely, it would be a shame if this charming little book garnered attention only on that account. Saleem is an accomplished filmmaker (his film Vodka Lemon was a critical success), and My Father's Rifle, his first book, is as gently compelling as his films. He writes crisply, with economy and restraint, which allows him to treat several themes in his childhood completely and without sentimentality.

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The son of an Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighter, Azad (as Saleem renames himself) describes a childhood dominated by the patriotic obligations of his family and his nation. As Cold War politics cynically force the Kurds under the power of the Baath party in Iraq, Azad's father futilely hopes for the best. Meanwhile, Azad struggles with his father's wishes as he nurtures artistic interests.

As a personal recollection, the book has more to do with how Saleem came of age in this tumultuous period than with the tumults themselves. And yet, he manages both to give a tender childhood portrait and to render the political circumstances behind that childhood. In the relation with his father, Saleem provides both the excitement and sadness of a child outgrowing his parent as well as a portrayal of the naive Kurds' captivity to Baath oppression. The charm of this wonderfully compact book lies in Saleem's ability to present the child's perspective while subtly conveying the wisdom of the man whom that child became. The result is a poignant memoir even more compelling than its background politics.

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