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A review by eelsmac
The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America by Susan Faludi
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
I vacillated on how to rate this because it's really great information, and Faludi definitely approaches the topic from a truly unique angle that I think is critical in many of the right ways, BUT I don't know how effective Faludi was at tracing back the historical patterns of social imagination. Like I agree and it totally tracks (and I've read quite a bit about some of the patterns of narratives that she describes) but I think if a reader did not have a strong academic background in anthropology, sociology, art history, women's or gender studies, or a related field, then I think certain sections would be more confusing and difficult to follow. I just think there could have been more art in how Faludi wove in the information about historical patterns/narratives to make those transitions easier for the reader to follow, maybe some editing to make everything a bit more concise (there are portions that feel very repetitive - and while I do advocate that academics write in ways that are more accessible to the public at large, repetition is not always necessary), and I would also say this book could use some intermittent explanations for some of the jargon.
That being said, in a field of books about 9/11/terrorism/Global War on Terror there are a lot of books that read the same, and Faludi approaches the subject at an angle that I think is truly different so it really stands out. I think because I was a kid I wasn't necessarily cognizant of the different narratives that were expressed throughout news and entertainment media and so some of the details that Faludi highlights are simultaneously resonant, jarring and eye-opening. Also having read this in 2023, post-2020 election bafoonery with Rudi Giuliani, the portions about Giuliani really just hit different. Having double checked the publish date, I sort of wish there was an updated version since the Global War on Terror and a lot of the public rhetoric/imagination/narratives have persisted and shifted and changed as both Afghanistan and Iraq proved to be intractable quagmires. But I would say in capturing some of the more prominent narratives and their subtext, Faludi does much better and is far more critical of 9/11 as a cultural and psychosocial event, than a lot of the dime a dozen works that focus on the failures within American bureaucracy and policy leading up the 9/11 and in the strategies applied to the Global War on Terror (I don't say this to cheapen those works, but that particular lane is a bit crowded).
That being said, in a field of books about 9/11/terrorism/Global War on Terror there are a lot of books that read the same, and Faludi approaches the subject at an angle that I think is truly different so it really stands out. I think because I was a kid I wasn't necessarily cognizant of the different narratives that were expressed throughout news and entertainment media and so some of the details that Faludi highlights are simultaneously resonant, jarring and eye-opening. Also having read this in 2023, post-2020 election bafoonery with Rudi Giuliani, the portions about Giuliani really just hit different. Having double checked the publish date, I sort of wish there was an updated version since the Global War on Terror and a lot of the public rhetoric/imagination/narratives have persisted and shifted and changed as both Afghanistan and Iraq proved to be intractable quagmires. But I would say in capturing some of the more prominent narratives and their subtext, Faludi does much better and is far more critical of 9/11 as a cultural and psychosocial event, than a lot of the dime a dozen works that focus on the failures within American bureaucracy and policy leading up the 9/11 and in the strategies applied to the Global War on Terror (I don't say this to cheapen those works, but that particular lane is a bit crowded).