Revenge: A Story of Hope - Hardcover

Blumenfeld, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684853167 ISBN 13: 9780684853161

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2002

Synopsis

The "Washington Post" reporter who went undercover to seek out the Palestinian terrorist who had shot her father travels the globe collecting tales of personal vengeance while probing the psychology of this primal emotion.

About this title

Review:

In 1986, a Palestinian terrorist shot author Laura Blumenfeld’s father. More than a decade later, Blumenfeld, a reporter for The Washington Post, decided to find the man who tried to kill her dad; she also wanted to learn about vengeance. “I was looking for the shooter, but I also was looking for some kind of wisdom,” she writes. “I wanted to master revenge.” Blumenfeld interviews a variety of people, from religious figures to assassins, about the meaning of revenge. The heart of the book, though, is her own journey to find the man who pulled the trigger. First she locates his family and learns vivid details about his life--he was a standout in his public-relations course at the University of Bethlehem. Blumenfeld’s own emotions aren’t far from the surface of this narrative. When she meets the shooter’s own father, for instance, she asks herself: “Am I supposed to shoot him now?” Finally she begins a creepy correspondence with the gunman, who is in prison. Their letters back and forth are oddly compelling--at first the shooter doesn’t know her real identity, though she eventually reveals it. In the end, Blumenfeld says her quest helped her find hope in a dangerous world, even as the final words of her book reflect upon September 11 and its immediate aftermath, when so many other Americans longed for their own vengeance. --John Miller

About the Author:

Laura Blumenfeld holds a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University and has been a staff writer at The Washington Post since 1992. She has also written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Elle, and the Los Angeles Times. She currently lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0684853167
• ISBN 13: 9780684853161
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384