Oriana

January 22, 2024
Rubis debuts with an uninspired biographical novel about crusading journalist Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006). The narrative begins with Fallaci’s experiences as a girl growing up in Italy during WWII with a father who is a member of the anti-fascist resistance, though the real action kicks off in 1973, when Fallaci interviews charismatic Greek rebel and poet Alexander Panagoulis. The story of their tempestuous love affair is juxtaposed with the arc of Fallaci’s career as she drops out of medical school to support her family, gets a job as a newspaper reporter, and quickly makes a name for herself in a male-dominated industry. After pioneering the q&a format, she graduates from interviewing Hollywood stars to writers like Norman Mailer, politicians like Bobby Kennedy, and international movers-and-shakers like Henry Kissinger. She earns her name as a war reporter with multiple trips to Vietnam, where she crosses into the North to interview the general behind the Tet Offensive. Framed predictably as an elderly Fallaci’s reminiscences after a visiting Hollywood producer asks to buy the rights to her story, the story is more highlight reel than deep dive into what drove her to become such a formidable journalist. It fails to do justice to Fallaci’s larger-than-life personality.