The Insider: Trapped in Saddam's Brutal Regime

As Saddam Hussein's personal physician, Bashir had unique access to the dictator and his family for 20 turbulent years, and in this darkly comic memoir, he chronicles his time as Hussein's ""unwilling confidant,"" taking the reader into presidential palaces, blood-spattered operating rooms and the streets of sanction-era Baghdad. Bashir grounds Hussein's reign in the context of Mesopotamia's chaotic past before letting loose with a wave of wry, absurdist vignettes (one, for instance, is titled, ""Iraq loses the Gulf War. Saddam's little finger bothers him"") that depict the Hussein family as a pack of feuding, brooding miscreants, all very at home in an atmosphere where people are jailed, tortured or killed for little or no reason. Bashir further unwittingly endears himself to Hussein through his (judging by his descriptions) garish paintings and sculptures, and received awards, exhibitions and a commission to build a seven-story tall monument. His desiccating wit notwithstanding, Bashir captures unexpectedly tender moments, as when Hussein silently held his son-in-law's hand during an emergency operation. Bashir's sadness at the current state of Iraq is palpable throughout these pages, making for a rewarding and unconventional take on the years leading up to Hussein's toppling.