Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 56
 Truth and Hope Survive October 26, 2008
Joseph Palen (Eugene, OR United States)
My favorite book of this year, a dramatized - you were there- epic, that is part expose', and part a series of romantic narratives that weave in and out and kept me thumbing back to where the newly reappearing character was last seen. They say there is a novelist hidden in every reporter, and parts certainly had the structure and poetry of a novel - al la LeCarre. The expose' parts, if true, should put people in jail - if not true, Suskind is in trouble, but I'm betting on true - he did not get a Pulitzer for nothing. The more romantic parts spun hopeful stories, where against the horrible conditions of the calamity we humans have created for ourselves there are people struggling together, helping each other because it is the right thing to do. In these places Suskind reminds me of Sarah Chayes who, in "Punishment of Virtue" ,told of the little, but all important. human interactions taking place beneath the awfulness of Afghanistan. This is a book in which those excited about "change" will find both the strongest possible need for it, and the hope that it can succeed.
 The saga continues October 24, 2008
JoeV (Arlington Hts, IL)
Suskind's third book on the Bush Administration is more than a behind the scenes look - it's a narrative - actually a handful of narratives loosely bound together by the "War on Terror" and reads much like a novel and even a screenplay at times. The stories track Benazir Bhutto's final months, an incredibly persistent Chicago attorney tasked with "defending", (and I use the term defending very loosely here), an "enemy combatant" imprisoned at Gitmo, an Afghani transfer student coming to America and several senior members, and ex-members, of the US Intelligence community as they go about making the world a safer place. The last includes a few visits into the Oval Office and the success/failure in simply engaging the current President in the details of critical projects. The good news/bad news for the reader is that each of these narratives is treated to same amount of detail - interesting when following the hunt for the elusive WMD - not so much concerning our Afghani adolescent, who for instance finds out that the Web contains a lot more than shopping sites.
There are nuggets - I'll mention one. If one's opinion is still out concerning the lack of Iraq's WMD, i.e. Intelligence incompetence or a rush to judgment with the use of questionable data, Suskind presents some damning evidence that the Bush administration was not only aware of these "oversights" but manipulated evidence to facilitate their cause for the invasion of Iraq. The hardest to ignore - several meetings, (prior to March '03), between a member of the British intelligence service and a high ranking Iraqi official confirming not only the lack of Iraqi WMD but also highlighting the "game" Saddam was "playing" by threatening the region with these "phantom" WMD.
I don't mean to slight the other narratives. Bhutto's story is memorable in capturing her almost knowingly walking to her assassination. (We know much of her last months because the NSA was tapping her phones.) Another of the Intelligence "stories" tracks the impossible task of infiltrating the global enriched uranium black market. And the Guantanamo tale mentioned above struck a chord with me. The persistence of the attorney - against all odds and the government - simply because she didn't believe what was happening was "right" does give one hope. Also the legal argument finally presented to break the "logjam" down there in Cuba was genius in its simplicity - at least to this non-attorney.
Is this book a must read that will continue to resonate 5 or 10 years from now? Probably not. Some of the narratives are overlong and become repetitious and much like "The One Percent Doctrine", the last 75 pages or so seems rushed. On the other hand "The Way of the World" continues to raise questions about the Bush/Cheney administration's effectiveness in waging its "War on Terror".
to speak is to lie October 13, 2008
Licet Soler Rosales (KY)
Just one more confirmation that the Shrub admin is nothing short of a criminal enterprise. Impeachment followed by a war crimes trial followed by a guilty verdict followed by execution of at least 7 memebers of the enterprise including of course the Shrub.
The Personal Effects of the War on Terror October 7, 2008
Andrew Canigiani
Loved this book. It really tells the personal side of the "War on Terror". It shows how it affects people from the President to trial lawyers trying to defend an "enemy combatant" at Guantanamo Bay. It also shows the differences culturally and communication wise between americans and people from the the Middle East. A must read for anyone fascinated with the dynamics of the United States influence in the world.
An interesting read, BUT....... October 5, 2008
Sharon S. Gibson (Playa Negra, Guanacaste, Costa Rica)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
THis is an interesting read and certainly relevant, informative and enlightening regarding the state of world affairs in which we find ourselves enmeshed as of late. Like Bob Dylan says, truly "The Times They Are A Changin'". And the beat of the global empire goes on. I do, however, have one question of Mr. Suskind: As an award-winning writer for the Wall Street Journal (and no doubt an insider and privy to all kinds of inside information as well as resources?), can you make you next book a truthful one about the "dirty dealings" on WALL STREET which resulted in the recent collapse of the American enonomy and let us know what really happened...both the HOW and the WHY? I would definitely buy that book, too.
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