Oriana Fallaci

June 12, 2017
Italian journalist de Stefano peels away the layers of mystery surrounding journalist Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006), whose career broke boundaries for women in her field. The book notes how as a child Fallaci was haunted by the specter of a discontented mother, who longed for a life beyond motherhood, and goes on to trace Fallaci’s improbable rise from a childhood in Mussolini’s Italy to her career as a journalist, agitator, and novelist. De Stefano goes behind the scenes of her high-profile interviews with figures such as Muammar Gaddafi, Indira Gandhi, Henry Kissinger, and Pope Benedict XVI. Never having met her subject, de Stefano reached out to Fallaci’s friends and colleagues for interviews but encountered reticence and sometimes belligerence, and often received contradictory accounts from those who agreed to cooperate. Yet her subject inspired her to stay the course and keep digging. She applied the same dogged tenacity to this biography that defined Fallaci’s work, and in the end de Stefano gained access to a large swathe of archival material, family records, and previously unpublished personal testimonies. Written in the present tense, the book allows readers to get to know Fallaci as she progresses in her career rather than in the context of the notoriety she garnered in her later years. This is an intimate investigation into a larger-than-life personality who, in the end, was just another lonely soul.

September 1, 2017
The great Italian writer gets her due in this short but captivating biography.Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006) played a unique role in international journalism in the latter half of the 20th century. She wrote, talked, and smoked furiously, and she wasn't afraid to get in the face of the rich and the powerful. She grilled Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about Vietnam, eliciting a quote describing himself as a lone cowboy that he regretted forever. Fallaci didn't suffer despots gladly; she called Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier an idiot to his face, and she defied the Ayatollah Khomeini by removing her head covering right in front of him. In her first book in English, Italian author and journalist De Stefano captures the sheer intensity of Fallaci's personality, both personally and professionally, and where it came from. She grew up working for the Italian resistance and matured into a woman who judged everyone, including herself, by the quality of courage. She was unforgiving of slights in friends and especially lovers; once it was over, there was no going back. She wasn't bogged down by inconsistencies; she was an ardent feminist who had mixed feelings about abortion and could become completely subservient to the men in her life. She hated authoritarianism but despised puritanical leftism. She was an unswerving atheist who admired and befriended Pope Benedict. After 9/11, Fallaci alienated liberals by becoming an unswerving Islamophobe. "The need to oppose fascism, of any type, on the Left or on the Right, is her line in the sand, the measuring stick with which she judges people and governments," writes the author. Although favorably inclined toward her subject, the book is not a hagiography; De Stefano diligently attempts to reveal all sides of a complex and brilliant figure. Fallaci left an enormous body of work, both journalism and fiction, and the future may demand a more definitive assessment of a long and productive career. But for now, this is a superb introduction to the life of an irreplaceable figure.

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Starred review from October 1, 2017
Born in Florence to poor, book-loving, heroically anti-Fascist parents, Fallaci joined the Resistance at age 14, delivering weapons on her bicycle. She supported her premed studies by writing for newspapers and soon dropped out to devote herself to journalism. In the first biography of this influential yet actually little known correspondent, De Stefano, herself a tireless researcher and mesmerizing writer, vividly describes Fallaci as fearless, tenacious, and exceptionally talented. In Rome, Fallaci covered the Italian cinema, then took on Hollywood. Unfazed by celebrities, she honed her now legendary interview technique, preparing assiduously, firing off impertinent questions, and including herself in her powerfully written, confiding articles. Once Fallaci turned her voracious attention to war and politics, she incessantly circled the globe, courageously reporting from war-torn Lebanon and Vietnam, and being injured by shrapnel in Mexico City. She interrogated world leaders, including Khomeini, Gaddafi, Kissinger, and Meir. But Fallaci also wrote poetic, psychologically revealing novels. Stories pour out of her with the potency of fruit and flowers, writes De Stefano. Always controversial and confrontational, a perfectionist who craved solitude and silence, Fallaci is brought down only by love and the anguish of her miscarriages. In this meticulous, perceptive, and dramatic portrait, De Stefano reveals the full intensity and sensitivity of a trailblazing warrior writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)