How is it possible for one middle-aged Saudi millionaire to threaten the worlds only superpower? This is the question at the center of Jonathan Randals account of Osama bin Laden's role in the rise of terrorism in the Middle East. [Knopf]
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
A masterful work of reporting, and of great importance in understanding the rise of modern Islamic terrorism and its singular personification.
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
An outstanding achievement, especially in light of the inherent difficulty in writing at length about so elusive a man.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Ben MacIntyre
This is the biography of a hatred: deep, detailed and very depressing...Osama's motives and methods are explored methodically and forensically, but what is lacking (perhaps because the evidence is so thin) is a sense of the personality behind this supremely dangerous company.
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Favorable
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Library Journal Nader Entessar
Highly readable and engaging. [Aug 2004, p.90]
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Favorable
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Booklist Vanessa Bush
A fascinating, informative look at the man considered the foremost terrorist threat to the U.S. [July 2004, p.1796]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Richard A. Clarke
Randal's witty, opinionated, and highly urbane style will at least once or twice send the Generation X reader to a dictionary. Yet his anecdotes and allusions create a vivid imagery lacking in most contemporary terrorism analysis.
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Favorable
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Christian Science Monitor Faye Bowers
The beauty of Randal's narrative is how richly it's rooted in his reporting experiences. He peppers telling anecdotes throughout - sometimes from Osama's era, sometimes from an earlier, but still relevant period.
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Favorable
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New York Review Of Books Max Rodenbeck
Even without striking new insights, Randal's combination of worldliness and stolid common sense stands in refreshing contrast to much commentary on the subject.
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Favorable
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The Spectator James Buchan
Osama: The Making of a Terrorist is not so much another biography of old beardie as a worldly and suave example of a once thriving subclass of literature, the newspaper correspondent’s memoir.
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Mixed
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Wall Street Journal Jonahthan Karl
Unfortunately, "Osama" leaves the reader unenlightened about what turned a millionaire bastard son into the world's most notorious terrorist. And we may never know. Osama and his confidants don't seem the type to write tell-all memoirs.
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Mixed
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Salon Laura Miller
I wish I could say that all this has led to remarkable revelations about bin Laden's history and character, but the truth is that there's little here that hasn't appeared in print somewhere before.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Michiko Kakutani
Many of the biographical specifics about Mr. bin Laden in this volume simply ratify portraits of him that have appeared in earlier accounts like Peter Bergen's 2001 book ''Holy War, Inc.,'' but Mr. Randal emphasizes certain psychological components that may remind the reader of similar dynamics in the life of George W. Bush.
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Unfavorable
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Washington Post Robert D. Kaplan
Its lack of understanding or empathy for the realities in which any American administration -- Republican or Democratic -- is forced to deal reduces the text in many places to the same old, tired criticisms of American policy that, while perhaps justified, insufficiently advance the reader's knowledge or understanding.
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