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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
I chose to read this book as part of Qwordy's Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do, because it was published in September 2024. I did not know anything about the siege of the Iranian embassy in London before reading The Siege. This book taught me a lot about the siege itself, but it also informed the reader on a little bit of the broader context surrounding it. I liked the way MacIntyre humanized the people involved and tried to understand the motives behind everyone's actions. I'm coming away from this book wanting to learn more about middle eastern history as well as military history, because I found learning about the SAS to be really interesting. The main criticism I have of this book is that I liked the pace up until the rescue mission. MacIntyre wanted to include as much information and perspectives as possible, but I feel like it broke the pacing a little when it came to describing the mission. Maybe this is a me problem though.
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3.5 Stars. I’m conflicted about how much I liked this book – it was both fascinating and frustrating. The amount of detail in this book is undeniably impressive – but also perhaps what brought down my enjoyment. There were SO many details, almost to the point that I often lost momentum while reading. There were many details I really appreciated, such as the mundane day-to-day experiences of the hostages mostly sitting around and waiting during the siege. I appreciated the details regarding the layout and furnishing of the embassy, the hygiene habits of the hostages, and the types of protestors and onlookers that attended the scene. But other details, such as the specific type of rope used for abseiling, and background stories of the players participating in a snooker championship (that happened to be occurring during the siege), made me question what value they added to the storyline.
I’m mostly disappointed about how the women were written – they received a very cliche edit. The women were often singularly described as ‘weeping’. Perhaps it’s how it all went down (I certainly wasn’t there, nor did I do the research). It was an incredibly stressful situation, and weeping would be a completely understandable reaction. However, I was very aware that whenever something particularly stressful occurred, the individual reactions of the men were described, whereas all the women were lumped into the same reaction: almost always weeping. There was more descriptive writing about the random snooker players, and about Lock’s self-imposed constipation, than what the women experienced. Except a random comment about the elevated stress causing the female hostages to ‘menstruate heavily’, as if implying that all the women experienced this reaction. This seems unlikely. As the siege was only six days, all the women would have had to have already been (or close to) menstruating for this to occur. Maybe all their cycles were synched up, I don’t know. I’m guessing one woman experienced this reaction, and therefore all the women experienced the same reaction, because, obviously. (Women <eye roll>, amiright??) Reading how the women were portrayed reminded me that I (a woman) wasn’t the target audience. This book was written by a man, and (generally) for men, and therefore most readers likely wouldn’t be too critical about how the women were portrayed (i.e. all heavily menstruating and all constantly weeping). Also noted: ‘Hysterical’ was (of course) used as a descriptor of the women’s behaviour, and Prime Minister Thatcher was frequently referred to as ‘Mrs.’ Thatcher.
Look, I know the women weren't the main characters in this story. Men were the perpetrators and the instigators. Men managed the situation; men made the decisions (with the exception of 'Mrs.' Thatcher), and men were the heroes. They were even the snooker players. I get it, these were the realities of gender roles in 1980. But I was frustrated with the portrayal the female hostages received. The women lacked nuance, and were reduced to stereotypes and tired, sexist cliches.
Anyway, I can (mostly) look past this – it was an impressive piece of investigative journalism about an event I knew nothing about. It was an excellent mix of extremely thorough research, narrative storytelling, and touches of humour that provided relatable levity. I appreciated learning about this wild piece of history – and also about Cliff Thorburn winning a snooker championship in 1980.
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I knew nothing about this incident in London in April/May 1980 and so reading this thrilling narrative, I did not know how it would end. This is just a few days after the failed attempt of the Carter Administration to rescue the hostage in the US Embassy in Tehran. Margaret Thatcher had recently become PM. The author does a wonderful job of placing this incident within the historical context. I have read many previous books by Ben Macintyre and enjoyed them. This newest book is very good. I am so impressed at how Macintyre keeps so many balls in the air and in addition tells a coherent and thrilling tale.
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The last Ben MacIntyre book I read was a riveting five star account of espionage during the Cold War. This current book is an enthralling account of a six day crisis at an embassy in London 1980. A nation was captivated watching on tv, this reader was on the edge of my seat reading the book.
This author is a storyteller. He doesn’t just write boring play by plays,he writes about the human condition and captures the emotion. He writes as though you are there as the events are occurring. Right from the first pages I could feel the tension and I was so engrossed, I didn’t want to put the book down.
Ben MacIntyre is one of the best non fiction writers of our time, in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
challenging
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