Reflecting on America: Chasing Hope and Tightrope

CHASING HOPE by Nicholas D. Kristof focuses on his life as a reporter and his almost forty years of working for The New York Times. Over that span, Kristof has informed the public about numerous crucial world events and still has important messages to share about the pursuit of truth and the need for compassion and action in support of others. Chapters in this lengthy text (roughly 480 pages) deal with difficult topics like the Tiananmen Square protests, the Yemeni civil war, and genocide in Sudan. Others profile lesser-known heroes, dissidents, and inspirational advocates. Commenting on Kristof’s reporting efforts, his publisher says, “Some of the risks he took while doing so make for hair-raising reading.” I concur and I think listening to the audiobook of CHASING HOPE would be fascinating – much like the tales of daring and courage which Admiral William McRaven shared in Sea Stories. Kristof weaves in interesting facts like, “My passports are huge, like paperback books, for I get extension after extension stapled in at overseas embassies. My last passport had 170 pages.” He turns to domestic issues and includes a chapter on covering Donald Trump (“I had never known an American politician so uneducated about policy, so self-absorbed and so deceitful…”) and another on campaigning to be the Governor of Oregon (“a chance to lift issues onto the agenda and generate political will for better policies”). Kristof describes how journalism has been transformed in the last half century and how public attitudes towards journalists have changed, too. Anyone who reads his pieces knows that his vision for journalistic storytelling has remained steadfast “not just as a technical craft but as one with an ethical mission: a better world.” Truly an act of hope.

TIGHTROPE by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn is subtitled “Americans Reaching for Hope.” The husband-and-wife team of Kristof and WuDunn are Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists and have written several books, including Half the Sky, together. TIGHTROPE refers to the precarious economic situation faced by lower- and middle-income Americans. Throughout, the authors reference many geographic areas of the US, but return frequently to Yamhill, Oregon where Kristof grew up and where his family has a farm. As the authors share stories of Krsitof’s high school classmates tied to addiction, drug abuse, and suicide, it also made me think of Our Kids by Robert Putnam, which, like his Bowling Alone (which Kristof and WuDunn reference), is another sociological look at changes in status and opportunity for Americans over time. Kristof’s TIGHTROPE, originally published in early 2020, shares its own sobering statistics as well: “about one-fourth of the kids who rode with Nick on the [local school] bus are dead from drugs, suicide, alcohol, obesity, reckless accidents, and other pathologies”). The authors stress that personal responsibility alone is not enough to facilitate a turnaround; this book is an effort to raise consciousness about our collective obligation, especially to today’s children. TIGHTROPE received a starred review from Booklist (“hard for readers to stop thinking about”).

But You Don't Look Arab by Hala Gorani

BUT YOU DON'T LOOK ARAB by Hala Gorani includes a Timeline of Key Events (stretching from 1909 to 2023) and a Select Bibliography. Gorani, an Emmy Award–winning international news anchor who was raised mostly in France, shares her family’s story and provides significant background about the twentieth century history of Syria and surrounding regions. Her text is both informative and emotive and I know specific students who would readily relate to her situation of being the blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter of Syrian immigrants. Gorani makes the choice to group events geographically (with sections labelled for major cities Aleppo, Cairo, Paris, Istanbul, Baghdad, Beirut, for example) rather than chronologically. In some ways, this makes following her thoughts more difficult for readers, but simultaneously allows them to more fully immerse themselves in another culture. Future journalists and readers curious about the Middle East will enjoy this new title as well as No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson.

Picture in the Sand by Peter Blauner

PICTURE IN THE SAND by Peter Blauner is an intriguing work of historical fiction. The novel alternates between 1954 Egypt and present day. The majority of the story is told by Ali Hassan, grandfather to Alex (call me Abu Suror) who has been radicalized and has left the States to be with his brothers in arms. Ali Hassan establishes tenuous contact with Alex via email and begins to relate his own life story: infatuation with films and a young wanna-be starlet, production assistant on The Ten Commandments movie, and involvement in religious and political dissent in Egypt. Featuring well-known people like Cecil B. DeMille and Gamal Abdel Nasser, Blauner provides an engrossing look at inflated egos, terrorist plots, and power struggles in Egypt from a time when, according to Blauner, “many historians say the rise of radical Islam, al-Qaeda and ISIS began.” Although sometimes violent (readers are warned early on that a main character loses an eye), this is a suspenseful thriller combined with an excellent coming of age story. Ali Hassan writes to his grandson, “It’s painful and deeply unsettling how much I recognize of myself in you. …. sometimes I think the old trying to talk to the young is like the dead talking to the living.” Blauner is an Edgar Award winning author and his publishers describe his latest novel as “the culmination of two decades of writing and research that took him from Brooklyn to Cairo a half-dozen times.” Hard work is evident: PICTURE IN THE SAND received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and prolific writer Stephen King said, "On rare occasions I read a book that reminds me of why I fell in love with storytelling in the first place. This is such a book."