Shah Of Shahs

I liked this book quite a lot, but had to take it down from 4 to 3 stars because it really drags in some parts.

Ryszard Kapuscinski is known as a dedicated journalist, one who puts himself in the situation, rather than analysing it from a distance - and he is somewhat a specialist in revolutions! When other journalists fled Iran, Kapuscinski hung around, observing, but also, it seems, living in the situation he was reporting on.

This book reads as journalism much more than the narrative of a book. It has a strange format - it is made up of three parts. The first and third parts - relatively short, are commentaries. The middle part is a series of descriptions and explanations.

The middle part is made up of a series of short essays about either ‘a photograph', ‘a cassette', or ‘from the notes'. To explain further - for each photograph, Kapuscinski describes a photograph. He is clearly looking at it analysing it as he writes - I personally think he missed a trick my not putting the photographs in the book - a picture painting a thousand words and all that... For a cassette, he describes an interview he recorded. In each ‘from the notes' section he tells a story or writes an essay on an item he has previously written his own notes about.

He writes from a position of knowledge, he writes about people and situations, their moods and the theory behind their actions. It comes across as realistic and honest, but for me was a bit disjointed.

I don't have a great knowledge of the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty - Reza Shah Pahlavi who took power in 1925, and was forced to abdicate in favour of his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was the last Shah of Iran, ending in exile in 1979. I came out knowing more about the situation, but I can't help thinking there are some gaping holes in my knowledge, and this book, rather than informing me of the history, the sequence and the events, would have been much more powerful if I already knew the basics. It would have filled in a level of detail, the atmosphere, the personal feelings and thoughts of some of the people. It would have added a layer of understanding, and more depth to the facts.

I have read a couple of Kapuscinski's books now, and I am impressed by his style, and I like his writing a lot, but for me, this one was a harder read. It is probably sitting 3.5 stars, and would have been higher, had I already possessed a bit more knowledge before I read it. For that reason I have rounded up to 4 stars.