A Civilian's Year in The War Zone
 Riveting, July 5, 2006
This brave woman drove trucks for Halliburton in Iraq. A riveting first person account. A must read if you really want to know what is happening in Iraq
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By Alexa Hinton, ahinton@nashvillecitypaper.com
July 11, 2006
"Morgan’s candid e-mails home along with her Internet postings to the families of American contractors in Iraq (“I post answers to questions husbands are afraid to answer,” Morgan said.”) and anecdotes filled in after-the-fact have become the content of the recently published Cindy in Iraq, a firsthand account of her life as a Halliburton female civilian contractor in Iraq."
"Just as Morgan’s family knows the intimate details of her life and experiences hauling ice and refrigerated goods across the Middle East, readers are given the same insight in Cindy in Iraq — no matter how personal or taboo."
To read the full article go to The Nashvile City Paper
July 17 on Publishers Weekly
Morgan, a civilian who drove refrigerated trucks throughout Iraq delivering ice to U.S. troops, narrates a chatty, companionable book that offers an unusual look at life in Iraq. She goes to Iraq in part to empower herself after three failed marriages (her third husband tried to strangle her) and in part because of a deeply felt and frequently expressed patriotism; the book successfully blends these two aspects, and the Cindy that returns from Iraq is a stronger person than the battered woman who arrived in September 2003. The writing is strongest when Morgan relates the details of trucking in a war zone (her account of an ambush is particularly gripping) and life on an army base (one episode involves a bomb-disarming robot chasing her). Unfortunately, Morgan often slips into vague ruminations on patriotism, and the story turns dull despite the drama inherent in Morgan's job. Her voice is honest, and the story can be both gripping and horrible (as when she was raped while in Kuwait), but the book, which depends heavily on e-mail correspondence and a blog Morgan maintained while in Iraq, lacks tightness of vision.
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Surely the grittiest book yet to come out of the Iraq War is “Cindy in Iraq: A Civilian’s Year in the War Zone,” by Cynthia I. Morgan, which is from the Free Press, a $25 hardcover. Cindy Morgan did two tours of duty as a civilian truck driver in Iraq, working for a Halliburton subsidiary delivering supplies to American soldiers along some of the most dangerous routes that a delivery truck ever negotiated. She is one tough cookie, and her harrowing experiences are related here in a raw, compelling prose style. Her take on the war is much more persuasive than that of the politicians because it is totally naive, artless and honest. Either one of the political parties would be well advised to sign her up.
Cindy spent much of her early married life in Arkansas, and she had an unbelievably tough time of it. She worked as a chicken plucker, among other miserable jobs, and saw her three children taken away because she couldn’t keep them fed. In and out of abusive relationships, she finally doggedly made a 13-year career for herself as a long-haul trucker.
Her book isn’t literature, and it won’t affect the war dialogue. But it’s a winner. And finally she is too.
We all know Cindy as White Rose, the elderly lady who decided to join the Army as part of a midlife crisis (I'm gonna get it, I just know it), but if you haven't read her book, Cindy In Iraq: A Civilian's Year In The War Zone, you don't really know her. That was a joke by the way.
Cindy takes us through the rough life that brought her to where she is now in her quest to join the Army. Through her deployment with KBR in Iraq, Cindy introduces us to the many people that came and went from her life. You will fall in love with her Iraqi friend, Adgnon. Adgnon was a young Iraqi boy whom she met many times on the side of the road that reminded her of her own son. He was a constant fixture during her many hauls up and down the main supply routes in Iraq. One day he wasn't there and she hasn't seen him since.
Cindy In Iraq isn't a book you read to fall asleep. She's is very informal in her writing and most of the book will either leave you beaming with joy or clenching your fist in anger. It'll also leave you wondering whatever happened to the dirtbag that almost ruined her life (you'll have to read the book to find out). You won't be able to put the book down, but if you don't, you won't get any sleep either.
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Copyright . Cynthia I Morgan. All rights reserved.
