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A review by kazzified29
In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum
5.0
I debated on giving a star rating to a biography this powerful. Should I give a rating or should I give a review that speaks for my lack of rating but still say that it’s essentially a 10 star read?
I devoured this book, I was obsessed with this book, and I sobbed at this. This is the only book that has made me cry. Ever. I have said that fiction Fantasy books have torn my heart out and texted a friend, ‘OMG SOBBING!!’ but it’s a lie. In Extremis had me sobbing throughout the epilogue.
Despite being 23 when Marie Colvin died, I was still very much ignorant to the world at that time but with reading In Extremis, I remembered everything that occurred in the book from the mid-90s onward. I think that’s what made the events all the more poignant and hard hitting. I may not have known everything but I remembered some names and dates and events. I would’ve loved to have written about Marie when I did my ‘Language and the Media’ 2010 essay at university.
Yes, this biography came on my radar after watching ‘A Private War,’ but the book filled in a lot of the blanks of the movie and I do think that the movie beautifully accompanies the biography. Granted, the movie is ‘based’ upon Colvin’s life with a lot of the events adapted and changed, but the biography really presents Colvin in all of her fallible glory. That’s what I loved about it. I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t want to. I wanted to know more about Marie and was kicking myself for not being more invested at the time. Being a child of the latter years of the Troubles, conflict sends my head into the sand, even to this day.
When I was at work, I was itching to continue reading during my lunch break (I never read on my lunch break), or itching to continue reading on the bus home. I nearly missed my bus stop on my morning commute because I needed to know what was going to happen to Marie.
A beautifully written and sensitive biography. Lindsey did an exceptional job piecing an extraordinary life together and paying tribute to an remarkable woman. Now, to pass this off biography to my colleague who has asked to borrow it.
I devoured this book, I was obsessed with this book, and I sobbed at this. This is the only book that has made me cry. Ever. I have said that fiction Fantasy books have torn my heart out and texted a friend, ‘OMG SOBBING!!’ but it’s a lie. In Extremis had me sobbing throughout the epilogue.
Despite being 23 when Marie Colvin died, I was still very much ignorant to the world at that time but with reading In Extremis, I remembered everything that occurred in the book from the mid-90s onward. I think that’s what made the events all the more poignant and hard hitting. I may not have known everything but I remembered some names and dates and events. I would’ve loved to have written about Marie when I did my ‘Language and the Media’ 2010 essay at university.
Yes, this biography came on my radar after watching ‘A Private War,’ but the book filled in a lot of the blanks of the movie and I do think that the movie beautifully accompanies the biography. Granted, the movie is ‘based’ upon Colvin’s life with a lot of the events adapted and changed, but the biography really presents Colvin in all of her fallible glory. That’s what I loved about it. I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t want to. I wanted to know more about Marie and was kicking myself for not being more invested at the time. Being a child of the latter years of the Troubles, conflict sends my head into the sand, even to this day.
When I was at work, I was itching to continue reading during my lunch break (I never read on my lunch break), or itching to continue reading on the bus home. I nearly missed my bus stop on my morning commute because I needed to know what was going to happen to Marie.
A beautifully written and sensitive biography. Lindsey did an exceptional job piecing an extraordinary life together and paying tribute to an remarkable woman. Now, to pass this off biography to my colleague who has asked to borrow it.