Struggles

In Impromptus today, I make some points about reviews and reviewers. And I indulge in a response to a malicious (and dumb) review of my recent book, Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators. I do so, in part, because the review appeared in one of my favorite magazines — in one of my favorite things in life: The Spectator.

In my column, I say, “Imagine a favorite uncle coming to the door, delivering to you a pot of steaming sewage.”

The Speccie’s reviewer plucks a passage from my afterword, for the purpose of mocking me. I begin that afterword by talking about the writing of my book. In due course, I say — and this is what the reviewer selects for mockery –

Here is something that may amuse you: For months on end, I borrowed books about dictators — psychopaths, mass murderers — from the library. I was worried that the librarians would have concerns about such a borrower.

After quoting this, the reviewer says, “Is this guy for real?” Well, she has a point: The reality or unreality of my lifework is an open question.

In any event, I wish to quote a reader of ours, who e-mailed, “I know exactly how you feel. For years, I’ve wanted to read Mein Kampf, but I refuse to have someone think I’m one of ‘those people.’”

A memory: Many years ago, Bernard Lewis, the dean of Middle East historians, told me that Khomeini had written a kind of Mein Kampf— a book or pamphlet spelling out exactly what he intended to do. This was well before the triumph of his revolution in 1979. (By the way, Khomeini and his family are a chapter in my new book. Amazing stuff.) Once Khomeini and his fellow revolutionaries took power, said Professor Lewis, copies of that book began to disappear from Western libraries.

Curious.

Mengistu and his family are a chapter in my book. (Mengistu was the dictator of Ethiopia, the “Stalin of Africa,” people called him, justly.) After he fell from power, he wrote a memoir titled “Tiglachin,” or “Our Struggle.” In my book, I have an aside, between parentheses: “The title ‘My Struggle’ — which in German is ‘Mein Kampf’ — had already been used.”

Now, this is the kind of comment to which some critics of my book have objected, strongly. “How can you joke when talking about monsters and their crimes?” In response, I might say, “How can you not? A little gallows humor makes the gallows more bearable.”

But there’s no pleasing everyone. Which is annoying, right?