“Blindsided by the Taliban” by Carmen Gentile is interesting and worth reading for three reasons.

The first is the extremely difficult circumstances the author is put in. While embedded as a journalist in a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan, he is hit in the head and badly wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at him by an Afghan, presumably a soldier of the Taliban that U.S. forces are fighting there.

The second reason to read it is that it comprises an excellent, clear picture of an American journalist’s relationship with his immediate clients who are the purchasers of the news he collects, sometimes in horrid places like rural Afghanistan.

That work is then transmitted to the ultimate clients, Americans and citizens of other countries who, on the basis of that news, are supposed to make sense of what their governments have them involved in as taxpayers and as parents and friends of the soldiers, diplomats and journalists they send to these places.

The battlefields where they are sent include Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. If America’s so-called leaders mess up, this list could also include Iran, North Korea or Ukraine.

These are all places where the heads of people such as Mr. Gentile can get blown off or, as in his case, get almost blown off, with devastating consequences.

A third reason to read it is the language and description of the lifestyle of a younger literate adventurer such as Mr. Gentile. Older folks, like your reviewer, whose fighting days are over should appreciate it.

The book itself presents the reader a challenge. It is not a straight chronological account leading from the moment when the shell plows into his head to the time when he returns to where it happened, has another look and remembers.

It also jumps around the different sites in which he lived, loved and recovered. If one reads the titles of the chapters, it is possible to get an idea of the flow of events and, particularly, of his recovery from his dire wounds and the “before” and “after” of the attack on him.

There are what I would judge to be some profound truths in the book.

He describes the Afghans as “the hardiest people on the planet.” I would agree with that. They were dealt a lousy piece of real estate, seem to be able to make money only from growing and marketing opium, and have had the misfortune to have a raft of people crawling all over them, including the British, Russians and Americans.

Another deep, accurate observation he makes is, “There’s an inherent loneliness that comes from seeing and experiencing things the vast majority of people never will.”

One doesn’t try to explain oneself to them because it would take too long and is too complicated, and thus one gets cut off alone. In his case, he lost part of his sight, and who knows what else, when he was gravely wounded in Afghanistan, where he wanted to be.

“Blindsided by the Taliban” is Mr. Gentile’s effort to enable us to understand him, Afghanistan, journalists and much else. There is some humor in it that adds M&Ms to the sometimes grim trail mix of what he went through.

He broke me up when he described Gen. David Petraeus as “like Mick Jagger with a chest full of medals.” I appreciate his George Orwell quote on journalism: “printing what someone else does not want printed.”

Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor (dsimpson@post-gazette.com).

First Published: March 11, 2018, 10:00 a.m.