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Title: Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski ISBN: 0-679-73801-0 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.26 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A great book about hard times
Comment: Ryszard's book 'The Shah of Shahs' tells me far more about the country during that turbulent time than drier history books or opiniated polemics on the politics of the region. His style of letting the people and events around him speak for themselves is illuminating. He has an empathic and observant eye, and a knack for being in the right place.
Most important of all, he sees these world shaping events for their effects on the people who must live, suffer or die through them as though THEY are what matters, and not the events or dictator biographies themselves. This is a humane and enlightened viewpoint, and ends up teaching me more about what happened during those times than other approaches.
There is a beauty and truthfulness in this style of journalism of immersion and talking to people that helps to make sense of the many conflicting arguments and perspectives of complex issues. I have nothing but praise for the man and his books, and you would do well to read them yourself
Rating: 4
Summary: Terror in Iran
Comment: I enjoyed reading Shah of Shahs. It's written in a compelling format; a frame story about a reporter organizing his material or cleaning up his hotel room. Holding at arm's length his research material Kapuscinski first describes what he's got; a photo or a newspaper cliping. Then he shares local intamacies telling how he came across this hinge of history. Finally an anecdote about some significant event. [On to the next note or photo.] In this way we learn details about the shah, his opponents and successors, slip into the atmosphere of the revolution, and begin to understand some of its causes and problems. It is not a complete account of the events leading to the Iranian revolution. Look elsewhere for that. In Shah of Shahs you'll find a brief narrative that fleshes out events and adds humanity to the details of history.
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent 'mood' book.
Comment: This is a very interesting book. Since there seems to be some confusion about it, let me make clear what this book is NOT; if you are looking for any of the following you should look elsewhere:
- A blow by blow account of the shah's life and the revolution with 30 references per 'fact'.
- A book about Americans. This book, being what it is, is about ehm...Iranians.
- Moral indignation about any of the protagonists whether the revolutionaries or the Shah or the Americans.
What this is, is a feelings book, a mood book. What this book will give you a feel for(according to the authors interpretation of course!) is:
- The nature of Iranian life before the oil boom
- The nature of the Shah and how he perhaps saw himself.
- The immense physical and physcological changes the oil boom brought to the region
- The Shah's tragicomic efforts to modernize.
- How Iranians saw themselves, the backwardness and the new modernity entering the land.
- The nature of life under the Shah.
- What would be the mood during the eventful days leading upto the revolution.
- Why these revolutions(Kapuscinski's 27th!) invariably fall apart, why those who could produce positive change invariably get shunted aside.
- What it might take to produce positive change.
This is a very good book. Kapuscinski makes some excellent observations. He is very perceptive and has the habit of sifting through the fog, to the root of the subject. Only gripe would be that the photographs should have been printed in the first section on Daguerrotypes, and sometimes his writing style gets a little too cute, and tends to lapse into hyperbolic metaphor.
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Title: The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski ISBN: 0679722033 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski ISBN: 067974780X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski ISBN: 0679738053 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski ISBN: 0679779078 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski ISBN: 0375726292 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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