PanThe Wall Street JournalCristina De Stefano reminds readers of Fallaci’s journalistic legacy while clumsily attempting to disappear her many flaws. But one must pity Ms. De Stefano, tasked with recounting the life of someone who once declared she 'never authorized, nor will I ever authorize, a biography' ... Ms. De Stefano devotes only a handful of pages to Fallaci’s anti-Muslim turn and avoids quoting any of the controversial passages, instead offering perfunctory descriptions of her critics ('Some accuse her of inciting racial and religious hatred') and breezing toward 2006, when Fallaci succumbed to cancer. Oriana Fallaci’s career was varied and imperfect, but she is deserving of a serious treatment by a serious writer. Instead, Ms. De Stefano has produced a single-author Festschrift that, in examining the life of a journalist who reveled in controversy, studiously avoids it.
Anu Partanen
PanThe Wall Street JournalEmploying anecdote and meticulously cherry-picked data, Ms. Partanen argues that on virtually every metric the U.S.—a massive, sloppy collection of religions, ethnicities and distinct regional cultures—is bested by tiny, homogenous Finland ... While Ms. Partanen insists that the Nordic social model is the answer to most of the U.S.’s problems, she all but ignores one social phenomenon long familiar to Americans: immigration ... She seems baffled that what works for the Finns might not work for her adopted country, dismissing objections that massive cultural differences would sink any attempts to transform America into a Scandinavian-style social democracy.
