Disappointing book

Flock is one of those journalists with literary ambitions who can’t help “embellishing” their prose with “poetic” images. These “lyrical slips” are so irritating that they often interfere with the flow of the narration. Of the three stories, only the last is worth reading. The first, that of Brittany Smith in Alabama, is quite interesting as long as the author quotes from reports and figures and doesn’t offer her own very superficial “understanding” of the murderer and her environment. The second, the story of Angori, an Indian Dalit woman, shows no insight whatsoever into the complexity of issues like caste and the position of women in Indian society (the issue of ethnicity is completely ignored, for instance). The quotations from Indian creative writers are completely random as if she has chosen a couple of books on the basis of their titles only. The third story of the Syrian guerrilla fighter Cicek is the only compelling story in the book. Firstly because the woman herself is a very complex human being and hence more interesting than Brittany and Angoori, and secondly because Flock did a lot of background research on the Syrian civil war. In fact, this is the only section that reads like “proper” journalistic writing (with only the occasional lyrical slip). The biggest problem with this book is that it is very uneven and the reason for choosing these three “furies” in particular are never explained beyond a very generic “they all fought patriarchy” and the like. But this not enough, especially considering that the book is presented as a meaningful contribution to the topic of gender and violence, which is not. The Epilogue, once again, shows how the author is a well-intentioned, decent, human being but somebody who is also extremely superficial in her judgement. Overall, this is a very disappointing book: many important matters are ignored or glossed over and too many controversial issues are reduced to straightforward, simplistic, remarks. In any case, despite of its flaws, the book deserves 2 stars for bringing the stories of these women and their predicament to the attention of the general reader.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!