Who Killed Daniel Pearl?
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Who Killed Daniel Pearl? description
Bernard-Henri Levy's Who Killed Daniel Pearl? offers a harrowing look at Pearl's life and tragic death wrought with a unique blending of journalism, novelist's imagination, and autobiography. Levy--an acclaimed French philosopher and bestselling author in Europe--in 2002 launched a one-year journey to understand Wall Street Journal report ... review details
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Who Killed Daniel Pearl? Customer Reviews
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A sharing and shining of light
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This is another of those books which by the very provocative nature of its title invites apprehension and misunderstanding from those who have not read it.
Other reviewers have summarized the contents of the book quite adequately, so I shall confine my description to this: the volume details Bernard-Henri Levy's one year investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 2002 murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Levy is on the ground in Karachi, Los Angeles, London, and just about anywhere else on this planet that served as a backdrop to any of the major players - those we know of, anyway - in this tragedy.
The key point being: it's Levy's subjective investigation report and derivative thoughts. It's not CSI. It's not a Fox News sanitized, agenda-laden report. It's BHL doing what he does best: grabbing a live situation and filtering it through the sieve of his own experience and mindful analysis. The result is mesmerizing. Levy's style, to oversimplify, is an evolutionary step beyond that innovated by Capote: Levy takes a real life story, writes it in the manner of a novel, and (here is where he moves away from the Capote model) personally insinuates himself into the plot as the observer.
When I read Levy, I place myself as the silent person over his shoulder, watching what he watches, and hearing what he hears. I ride along in the car, climb the stairs, step into the back rooms that have the blood on the floor and the kids playing outside. By reading in this manner, one can more fully enter into Levy's inner dialogue, and mentally join the discussion. It's rather a psychic travelogue. Imagine sitting in a caf? listening to a friend who has just returned from, say, Lahore, describing what he saw and who he spoke with, and what he thought. That's the attitude of this book. I can smell the hotel lobbies, hear the cacophony of the streets, and feel my cold perspiration when the cab is pulled over by a Pakistani policeman with an automatic weapon.
Some reviewers have called this work anti-Islam, or anti-Daniel Pearl, or anti-American. Some reviewers (American themselves no doubt) seem to have stopped at the point they realize BHL is French, and then walk away, caught up in the present Francophobe lunacy. It's a shame, as they obviously haven't read the book, and therefore they miss the boat along with any hope of a progressive discussion. It's no more anti-Islam than, for example, writing about Bernadette Devlin would be anti-Christianity.
This book should be read by mindful people and thinking book clubs everywhere, as it brings to the fore notions that are not widely reported in the U.S. concerning certain nations who purport to be our allies, and perhaps do not always remain true to that allegiance. Or can't. It's an excellent glimpse into the furtive, dark, and complicated world of terror organizations that is rarely publicized in the States.
At my fantasy dinner party, I seat BHL next to Reza Aslan, and listen to them discuss these events, both those that befell Mr. Pearl, and those precedent - now there's a panel that would enlighten and inform us all.
The LA Times recently reported that Beacon Pictures is scheduled to begin this autumn filming a movie based on the book. It should prove interesting to see how and if the director captures BHL's academic musings on camera. |
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