This is a strange book -- and the first time I have ever been tempted to lie on a review. Why? It feels wrong to say that I thought the book had some major flaws, as if I'm tarnishing the memory of Daniel Pearl, rather than just judging the book on its literary merits.
Strangely, the biggest problem with A Mighty Heart is that it lacks emotion. It is essentially a 234-page newspaper article, filled with names, dates, and movements -- so many, in fact, that I had a hard time keeping track of who all the characters were. I didn't know that much about Daniel Pearl going in, and I don't really know anything more about him now -- he owned a mandolin, and occasionally wrote inappropriate emails to his friends. But that's not knowing a man. Perhaps that, most of all, makes me sadder than any part of the book...as a journalist, to read a book about a journalist who gave his life for this profession, and to admire that, while he still remains pretty faceless. I know that Mariane loved him, and it sounds like they had a wonderful marriage -- but her love doesn't shine through on the page, but more in the labor of love that is the book itself. (Reading other people's reviews on Amazon, I think that's where everyone gets confused.)
The most moving section of A Mighty Heart are, oddly, the letters in the back that were sent to Mariane and the unborn Adam, from people around the world. Some letters are from politicians, like President Bush and French president-at-the-time Jacques Chirac, but then others are from ordinary people. It's amazing how many people wrote to them, just to say, I'm sorry and have hope. It's the strength of that book, that ending.
But on a different track, the other bit of oddness is being plunged back in time, to 2001, but that's what resonated. Terrorism is still so real and present in our lives, but it's like we live in a completely different era, even though today it's only 6 years later. And I know that we cannot live in a perpetual state of fear and I don't want to, but there was also something beautiful about September 2001 -- it was a time when we were a united nation, and strangers actually looked at one another, and spoke to one another. Life was precious, and for a moment, everyone saw the phenomenal gift that they held in their hands. It was like we existed in this heightened state of awareness together, something that I have felt at only brief moments since.
But that's not really what A Mighty Heart was about. The book itself was a very detailed description of a search that, up until page 143, was on a wild goosechase. The grammar was bad (I know she's French, but she had co-writer), and some information was badly organized. At the same time, A Mighty Heart made me rememember, and more importantly, think. And that's it. I both liked and disliked it at the same time...and feel bad for saying so.
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