Where to find a credible source regarding a controversial figure?

February 11, 2007 3:47 PM

Help me find a good monograph or two about Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci.

So far I have only been able to track down two credible sources trough Amazon and various library searches. Santo Arico's "Oriana Fallaci: The Woman & the Myth" and John Gatt-Rutter's "Oriana Fallaci: The Rhetoric of Freedom" are seemingly the only two books not written with a specific bias. If anyone has read either of these and has a positive/negative opinion please elaborate. Thank you!

posted by bigcheesegump to education (5 comments total)

I found Margaret Talbot's recent New Yorker profile of Fallaci to be pretty readable. Apologies if that doesn't satisfy your request.
posted by Xalf at 3:56 PM on February 11, 2007

listen, the biggest mistake you can make with Fallaci is to consider her last five years as the key to understand her career -- they're not. judging Fallaci by the post-911 work is like judging Billy Wilder on the basis of his last two, underwhelming films, or judging Callas by her last recitals, when her voice had gone to hell.

Fallaci is the 1960s and 1970s work. Inshallah, as well but mostly the older work.

for this reason, bias is unimportant -- what you're looking for is good solid information. this is a good source of info. written by a fan? yes. it doesn't really matter.

for a footnote to her work, to her life, ie her post-911 work, just read the damn books (they're just three short books anyway).
posted by matteo at 4:01 PM on February 11, 2007

Christopher Hitchens, who is incredibly brilliant and sane except when it comes to American foreign policy, wrote a Vanity Fair piece on her in December.
posted by HotPatatta at 5:40 PM on February 11, 2007

You could try searching worldcat.org for "Oriana Fallaci." Enter your zip code to sort the search by holdings of libraries closest to you.
posted by initapplette at 7:04 PM on February 11, 2007

i really liked the new yorker article when it came out, and was freaked out when she died shortly after.
posted by ifjuly at 8:23 PM on February 18, 2007