Chasing hope A reporter's life

Review by Booklist Review

This hefty account of Kristof's life and career will remind readers of the groundbreaking, insightful, often influential work Kristof has produced throughout his 40 years with the New York Times as a reporter, editor, and columnist, from his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests (for which he and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, won a Pulitzer Prize) to his opposition to the Iraq War, his fight against child pornography, his relentless exposure of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, his advocacy of women's rights worldwide, and his chronicles of the breakdown of America's working class, among many other issues. Hardly surprising for someone with degrees from Harvard and Oxford Universities, who for decades has deftly mixed with both world leaders and the utterly powerless, and whose career fast-tracked almost from the get-go, some ego is on display here; but Kristof also brings an exquisitely nuanced, often self-critical perspective on how exceedingly difficult it is for journalists to get a story right, all while trying to square the professional demands of objectivity with the human impulse to offer help. In the end, a thoughtful book that touches on many of the defining events of our time and how those events got covered.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this impassioned memoir, New York Times journalist Kristof (coauthor with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, of Tightrope) looks back on a career spent exposing injustice. Kristof recaps his experiences covering 40 years of conflicts, social movements, and civil rights abuses, including reporting on communist Poland's 1981 crackdown on Solidarity protests; the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, for which he and his wife won a Pulitzer Prize; the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq; the plights of child sex slaves in Cambodia; and the genocide committed by the Sudanese government in Darfur, for which he won another Pulitzer. Along the way, Kristof referees Times office politics and drolly considers the paper's editorial whims ("If an editor's dog is diagnosed with cancer, then prepare for a series about the scandalous cost of veterinary care"). The tone can slip into self-regard: Kristof preens over a college term paper that a professor called "extraordinarily well-written," and is sure to mention that cider from his Oregon apple orchard has won gold medals. Still, Kristof's powerful reportage makes for a gripping look at both the craft of journalism and the humanitarian disasters he's witnessed. Photos. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

One of the most consequential journalists of our time recounts his life and storied career, showing how "journalism is an act of hope." Among many other honors, longtime New York Times journalist Kristof has won two Pulitzer Prizes: for International Reporting in 1990, with his wife and colleague Sheryl WuDunn, in recognition of their coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre; and for Commentary in 2006, for bringing global attention to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. He served as New York Times bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo; as a senior editor at the Times in charge of the Sunday edition; and as a permanent opinion columnist. In this engaging memoir, Kristof offers numerous tales of encounters with danger in war zones and narrow escapes from death, including a plane crash in the African wilderness. Throughout his career, the author has never lost his belief in "purpose-driven journalism that exposes injustice." As part of his mission to get readers to care about human suffering and tragedy, he chronicles his return to his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon, to examine the shocking rates of alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide, and other "deaths of despair" in contemporary working-class America. He describes how he inherited his passion for human rights from his father, who escaped from despotic Romania. Kristof's fabulous career, from Harvard and a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford to the Times, has clearly been guided by a firm moral compass, a belief that truth, information, and ideas can be forces for justice and change in the world. If his 2021 campaign for governor of Oregon came to a premature end, no matter. Kristof has made his mark through his fearless reporting, and this memoir is a worthy record of his life's work. A vividly recalled account of a life that has had true global impact. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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