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A review by labunnywtf
The Spy by Paulo Coelho
2.0
This story would have been amazing if it were fiction, loosely based on the life of Mata Hari. I mean, that's what this is, but it's written as though it were the story of Mata Hari. An awful lot of historical liberties are taken, and that's coming from someone who knows very, very little about the real life woman.
I discovered while reading this that a lot of people don't know who Mata Hari is, down to the name. And this isn't a case of 'damn youngins not knowing history", these were people my age range and older who I had to spell the name out three times while they typed into their phones to see if they could just watch a movie to find out who she was.
This story is very beautifully written, but it feels exceptionally off. Mata Hari was villainized at a time where political distraction was needed desperately to take attention away from very real issues that were going on.
The real story of Mata Hari gets lost in here, but it's so poignant and relevant to the world 100 years after her death, and it's something that needs to be talked about, and this is not the book that will do it.
Read up on Mata Hari's life and death. If you want to read this, go ahead. It's a great jumping off point, like watching the movie before reading the book to find out how the story really happened. I cannot emphasize enough that the world she lived and died in is not even remotely far removed from our own.
I discovered while reading this that a lot of people don't know who Mata Hari is, down to the name. And this isn't a case of 'damn youngins not knowing history", these were people my age range and older who I had to spell the name out three times while they typed into their phones to see if they could just watch a movie to find out who she was.
This story is very beautifully written, but it feels exceptionally off. Mata Hari was villainized at a time where political distraction was needed desperately to take attention away from very real issues that were going on.
The real story of Mata Hari gets lost in here, but it's so poignant and relevant to the world 100 years after her death, and it's something that needs to be talked about, and this is not the book that will do it.
Read up on Mata Hari's life and death. If you want to read this, go ahead. It's a great jumping off point, like watching the movie before reading the book to find out how the story really happened. I cannot emphasize enough that the world she lived and died in is not even remotely far removed from our own.