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A review by grouchomarxist
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
3.0
She won the Nobel Prize for Peace, not Literature. That being said, this was a pretty moving, quick read. Certainly, it's both an enjoyable introduction to some of the regional politics, as some of my friends have written in their reviews, as well as a pretty softball introduction to Malala herself. This is fine... I mean, she's still very young; her self-hood is defined almost entirely by going to school & almost being murdered for it, which probably makes writing a memoir a bit difficult. I mean, what else measures up to that in terms of drama?
I was struck most by the banality of much of what she had written. I had heard of MALALA THE AMAZING TEENAGER, so it was almost cognitively dissonant - if that's a phrase - to read that she read Twilight books and quarreled with her little brothers. If anything, it made me respect her more. She isn't even that extraordinary, she is just a kid who really wanted to go to school. That makes her campaign even more important, in my opinion.
What I liked about this book was the way it introduced a lot of Pakistani politics and cultural dynamics, to the point where I feel more well-versed in the geopolitics of the situation (after all, I am only a dumb American). I also had no idea what Malala's father had done, so learning about his own campaign for education was interesting to me. I was also very surprised by the candid way in which she described (at least in the 2015 edition intro) the differences between Pakistani education and British education, and her acknowledgment of how behind she was (by British standards). So if you are interested in the cultural aspects of education, this book has some rewards.
Overall, though, it's not very well written. There's a lot of tell and very little show. However, I hope it is a promising glimpse of some of the later things she'll do in her life. It's one of those books that is useful to read because of how it makes you better-informed as a citizen and as a person, even if it is not always great literature. It's about a great person, no matter what, so it's a valuable read. This is more of a 3.5 than a 3.
I was struck most by the banality of much of what she had written. I had heard of MALALA THE AMAZING TEENAGER, so it was almost cognitively dissonant - if that's a phrase - to read that she read Twilight books and quarreled with her little brothers. If anything, it made me respect her more. She isn't even that extraordinary, she is just a kid who really wanted to go to school. That makes her campaign even more important, in my opinion.
What I liked about this book was the way it introduced a lot of Pakistani politics and cultural dynamics, to the point where I feel more well-versed in the geopolitics of the situation (after all, I am only a dumb American). I also had no idea what Malala's father had done, so learning about his own campaign for education was interesting to me. I was also very surprised by the candid way in which she described (at least in the 2015 edition intro) the differences between Pakistani education and British education, and her acknowledgment of how behind she was (by British standards). So if you are interested in the cultural aspects of education, this book has some rewards.
Overall, though, it's not very well written. There's a lot of tell and very little show. However, I hope it is a promising glimpse of some of the later things she'll do in her life. It's one of those books that is useful to read because of how it makes you better-informed as a citizen and as a person, even if it is not always great literature. It's about a great person, no matter what, so it's a valuable read. This is more of a 3.5 than a 3.