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Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'
Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend by Cristina De Stefano
1 review
talypollywaly's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
fast-paced
3.75
Is it "important" or "necessary" to read the biographies of bigoted individuals? That's too big of a question for me to ponder.
Instead, I'll just focus on why, after learning half-way through that she was indeed a right-leaning Libertarian towards the end of her life, I decided to complete the book.
-I enjoyed learning so much about 20th century history from a non-American perspective.
-Her life was an absolute roller-coaster, and that made up for the really lackluster writing from the author. (No seriously, a lot of this book was just lists of all the things she did, but somehow I couldn't stop reading.)
-Up until her later years, she seemed like someone who was eager to represent the "underdog," and she was full of contradictions as a woman so hell-bent as being seen as "strong," yet one who so easily let toxic men control her.
Here's why others might not want to finish this book:
-The author became complacent with regards to Fallaci's bigotry. She completely failed to mention what a raging homophobe she was in her later years and instead tries to make her seem amenable to the gay community by providing a quote where Fallaci defends the morality of a gay friend of hers that was likely hate crimed to death. (Fallaci was fiercely against gay marriage and gay parental rights.)
Furthermore, the author explains away Fallaci's islamophobia by simply stating she was against "any kind of fascism." Despite the fact that Fallaci generalized all Muslims as violent radicals and stated there was no such thing as a "moderate" Muslim. (All of this information is widely available on Fallaci's wikipedia btw, this author just wanted to be complacent.) (Btw, I don't think any good "anti-fascist" would be in favor of restricting the basic right to marriage to any human being.)
One more example bcos I'm petty: but the sheer fact that the author chose to use the word "immigrant" to describe the Somali refugees that fled to Italy that Fallaci so enthusiastically hated on was certainly a CHOICE.
-Also, as you can probably tell by now, Fallaci was a giant hypocrite in a lot of things. She swore up and down that she was an Atheist, but certainly excitedly shat on Muslims while excusing hundreds of years worth of literal Christian crimes against humanity as things that "happened a long time ago," which to me sounds like her childhood beliefs certainly stuck with her for life. Also I do not have the energy to go on about how she was constantly rooting for the "underdog" but was a staunch Zionist :)
TLDR: I would rate this a 3 solidly based on what a shill the author was, and a poor writer to boot. However, the narrative (up until the last 50-70 pages or so) had me firmly hooked.
Instead, I'll just focus on why, after learning half-way through that she was indeed a right-leaning Libertarian towards the end of her life, I decided to complete the book.
-I enjoyed learning so much about 20th century history from a non-American perspective.
-Her life was an absolute roller-coaster, and that made up for the really lackluster writing from the author. (No seriously, a lot of this book was just lists of all the things she did, but somehow I couldn't stop reading.)
-Up until her later years, she seemed like someone who was eager to represent the "underdog," and she was full of contradictions as a woman so hell-bent as being seen as "strong," yet one who so easily let toxic men control her.
Here's why others might not want to finish this book:
-The author became complacent with regards to Fallaci's bigotry. She completely failed to mention what a raging homophobe she was in her later years and instead tries to make her seem amenable to the gay community by providing a quote where Fallaci defends the morality of a gay friend of hers that was likely hate crimed to death. (Fallaci was fiercely against gay marriage and gay parental rights.)
Furthermore, the author explains away Fallaci's islamophobia by simply stating she was against "any kind of fascism." Despite the fact that Fallaci generalized all Muslims as violent radicals and stated there was no such thing as a "moderate" Muslim. (All of this information is widely available on Fallaci's wikipedia btw, this author just wanted to be complacent.) (Btw, I don't think any good "anti-fascist" would be in favor of restricting the basic right to marriage to any human being.)
One more example bcos I'm petty: but the sheer fact that the author chose to use the word "immigrant" to describe the Somali refugees that fled to Italy that Fallaci so enthusiastically hated on was certainly a CHOICE.
-Also, as you can probably tell by now, Fallaci was a giant hypocrite in a lot of things. She swore up and down that she was an Atheist, but certainly excitedly shat on Muslims while excusing hundreds of years worth of literal Christian crimes against humanity as things that "happened a long time ago," which to me sounds like her childhood beliefs certainly stuck with her for life. Also I do not have the energy to go on about how she was constantly rooting for the "underdog" but was a staunch Zionist :)
TLDR: I would rate this a 3 solidly based on what a shill the author was, and a poor writer to boot. However, the narrative (up until the last 50-70 pages or so) had me firmly hooked.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Infidelity
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