Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper

 

Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 207
Duration: November 24-25, 2007

Description:
From the inside cover:

Few people have witnessed more scenes of chaos and conflict around the world than Anderson Cooper, whose groundbreaking coverage on CNN has changed the way we watch the news. In this gripping, candid, and remarkably powerful memoir, he offers an unstinting, up-close view of the most harrowing crises of our time, and the profound impact they have had on his life.

After growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Cooper felt a magnetic pull toward the unknown, an attraction to the far corners of the earth. If he could keep moving, and keep exploring, he felt he could stay one step ahead of his past, including the fame surrounding his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and the tragic early deaths of his father and older brother. As a reporter, the frenetic pace of filing dispatches from war-torn countries, and the danger that came with it, helped him avoid having to look too closely at the pain and loss that was right in front of him.

But recently, during the course of one extraordinary, tumultuous year, it became impossible for him to continue to separate his work from his life, his family’s troubled history from the suffering people he met all over the world. From the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq to the starvation in Niger and ultimately to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi, Cooper gives us a firsthand glimpse of the devastation that takes place, both physically and emotionally, when the normal order of things is violently ruptured on such a massive scare. Copper had been in his share of life-threatening situations before–ducking fire on the streets of war-torn Sarajevo, traveling on his own to famine-stricken Somalia, witnessing firsthand the genocide in Rwanda–but he had never seen human misery quite like this. Writing with vivid memories of his childhood and early career as a roving correspondent, Cooper reveals for the first time how deeply affected he has been by the wars, disasters, and tragedies he has witnessed, and why he continues to be drawn to some of the most perilous places on earth.

Striking, heartfelt, and utterly engrossing, Dispatches from the Edge is and unforgettable memoir that takes us behind the scens of the cataclysmic events of our age and allows us to see them through the eyes of one of America’s most trusted, fealess, and pioneering reporters.

 

Review:

A little background about me and Anderson Cooper. In middle school we had to watch Channel One….I say had, but I really enjoyed it and hoped that whatever school I worked in someday would have Channel One. Anderson Cooper was one of the reporters. I really liked him and thought he was cute. Anyway, over the years I’ve seen his name, but never paid much attention. When Hurricane Katrina hit I was glued to the afternoon TV and CNN’s host for most of it was Anderson Cooper. It didn’t take long and I decided I didn’t like Anderson Cooper. All he did was make me mad. He was rude and condescending. I didn’t understand how he could treat people who were going through such tragedy the way he did.

Yet, despite the fact that I found him irritating, when I found he was writing a book, I couldn’t wait to read it. Me and my non-fiction books. But I refused to buy it and when it first came out, when I had time to read, it was always checked out and then my interest faded and life moved on. Then, when we were at the library a few weeks ago, I had some time to kill. Zach was looking for books for his research project, so I was just browsing around my favorite section-Non-Fiction-when I happened across this book, Dispatches from the Edge. Of course, I picked it up, but it has sat on my shelf for a few weeks.

Well, yesterday I picked it up and started reading. I was afraid it was going to be boring. As much as I love non-fiction, most of the time I’m scared to pick up a book because I’m afraid I’m going to lose interest or it’s going to be too detailed or it’s going to be political and lose me and let’s face it a book written by a reporter about war will probably have some politics in it and I’ll lose interest. Well, it’s tomorrow and the book is finished, so….I didn’t get bored.

Anderson Cooper writes this book in such a way that you want to keep reading. Each section of the book focuses mainly on two parts of his life – his reporting life and his personal life. It takes you through his journey to overcome death and his desire to actually help people throughout the world. I’m not saying I agree with him, but he has integrity and I will have to forgive him for the harsh way he dealt with New Orleans city workers during the Huricane. I can see it from his point-of-view now and understand what was going on a bit more.

A short, easy read. Really a must for anyone who watches the news, but you also must remember, it is a personal memoir of his life as well.