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A Thousand Suns is both a personal memoir and a testament to the notable characters Lapierre met along the way, from the great and the good, such as Mother Teresa, to the infamous (such as Caryl Chessman, who was executed in San Quentin in 1960), to the more anonymous. Throughout, Lapierre is always looking for the personal details that make the stories come alive. And he finds them. He discovers that General von Choltitz, the Nazi in charge of occupied Paris, had had an overcoat made in the summer of 1944 "because he thought it would be cold in a POW camp." Kozo Okamato, the only surviving Red Army Faction (RAF) member to bomb Lod airport, tells him he became a terrorist after being dumped twice by girlfriends. "At the time the RAF seemed a less demanding lover." These are the insights that animate Lapierre's work, and he is never afraid to find the humanity in even the most apparently evil of people.
However, this tendency is both a virtue and his undoing, as Lapierre sometimes allows his obvious affection for his subject to cloud all judgment. An example can be found in his accounts of Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Mountbatten was a known charmer, but his record on the partition of India does not bear scrutiny. His fudging of the boundaries, and the speed with which he acted, was undoubtedly a significant factor in the mass bloodshed that followed. Lapierre lets him off the hook with a single sentence: "By extricating his country from the Indian wasps' nest without spilling a drop of British blood, Mountbatten had saved Great Britain from one of those colonial wars of which France had made a speciality." Even for a partisan observer, this simply will not do. But a journalist who cares too much is always preferable to one who doesn't care at all, and Lapierre especially so, for the range and depth of his reportage, if nothing else. He harks back to a more innocent age when public figures were more open and trusting; few journalists would get anything like the access to equivalent figures today. Enjoy him, warts and all. You won't see his like again. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
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Book Description Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 4824624-6
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.4. Seller Inventory # G0446525359I4N00
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.4. Seller Inventory # G0446525359I4N00
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.4. Seller Inventory # G0446525359I4N00
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good -. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Printing. Ex-library copy. No library pocket. Title page has a 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch open tear. biography. Seller Inventory # 41471
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Ex-library copy no library pocket and few library marks in book. world history. Seller Inventory # 700129577
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Very good condition, but shelf worn. Tight, no markings. Seller Inventory # 000006
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Very good with no marks, damage or labels. We Ship Daily! Satisfaction Guaranteed!. Seller Inventory # 139811
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. From Mother Teresa and the slums of Calcutta to a legendary matador in the bull rings of Spain to the final days of the British Raj in India, "A Thousand Suns" tells of the extraordinary individuals and events that have shaped the 20th century. Due to age and/or environmental conditions, the pages of this book have darkened. Former library book. Mylar protector included. Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item. Ex-Library. Seller Inventory # 123639815
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. Remainder mark on page edge. Otherwise quite nice condition. Seller Inventory # 392790