ralentina reviewed Anatomy of a Killing by Ian Cobain
A primer on the troubles
4 stars
Months ago I had listened to the Guardian Long Read excerpted from this book, and I had been idlly meaning to read the rest ever since. Then, I watched Hunger, Steve McQueen's film about Bobby Sands' hunger strike, and decided it was time.
It is perhaps the best journalistic book I ever read (admittedly, it's not a genre with which I'm particularly familiar). Clearly, the author imagines a British audience, and so the first part of the book is devoted to persuading readers that IRA fighters are first and foremost people, whose decision to join an armed force was mainly shaped by the circumstances in which they found themselves (or, as a former fighter puts it, that they would not have become IRA fighters had not they been born in Northern Ireland). The argument does not go as far as to claim that terrorism is in the eyes of the …
Months ago I had listened to the Guardian Long Read excerpted from this book, and I had been idlly meaning to read the rest ever since. Then, I watched Hunger, Steve McQueen's film about Bobby Sands' hunger strike, and decided it was time.
It is perhaps the best journalistic book I ever read (admittedly, it's not a genre with which I'm particularly familiar). Clearly, the author imagines a British audience, and so the first part of the book is devoted to persuading readers that IRA fighters are first and foremost people, whose decision to join an armed force was mainly shaped by the circumstances in which they found themselves (or, as a former fighter puts it, that they would not have become IRA fighters had not they been born in Northern Ireland). The argument does not go as far as to claim that terrorism is in the eyes of the beholder, but the implication is at the very least that IRA fighters did not think of themselves in those terms.
The core of the book focuses on the number of lives wrecked by the troubles, by deaths, tortures, imprisonments, betrayals, mob violence, resentment. It is a thin line to tread - I can see many people thinking he's too soft on the IRA, and many others that by showing the sufferings of both sides he depoliticises the IRA's actions. Overall, I think one can really appreciate his journalistic commitment to report on the facts, whether or not they look good for one or the other party (also showing that the parties were not just two parties).