cyphomandra

The book I was most annoyed at myself for not finishing in 2009, because I was about thirty pages from the end for six weeks or so, this is a collection of journalistic pieces from 1945 (the liberation of Dachau) to just after 9/11, focussing on exposing unpalatable truths. Overall very good, although for me the second half has too much emphasis on the Middle East (against the war in Iraq and for Palestine). I think these are important issues – the current Chilcot inquiry certainly is attempting to address the first – but, and this is quite probably my own bias, as my views on Palestine don't mesh all that neatly with the authors, it felt as though too much space was being spent telling me the same things over again, undermining rather than emphasising their impact. Having said that, the first half - and bits of the second half - is excellent, and worth reading. I would, however, recommend not reading large chunks of it at a go unless you're already feeling particularly disenchanted with humanity.

( John Pilger (ed.), Tell me no lies. )