Then the dormant volcano exploded. After 9/11, when the dust of human remains and rubble was still hanging over New York, Fallaci broke her self-enforced silence. The Rage and the Pride was a defence of the free world, and a savage — at times wild — attack on the Islamic world. She had first encountered Islam in Pakistan as a reporter in the winter of 1960. The fury which had burned since then now poured out in this burning, toxic lava. In Italy the newspaper which carried the first version of the essay sold out, while the book version sold by the hundreds of thousands. (…)
And there her reputation had remained for the past decade. When remembered it has tended to be for some portion of those three last, undisciplined but important books. In Italy the events of the migrant crisis and upsurge in terrorist attacks over recent years have brought her books back onto the display tables. There remains a considerable pride over this Cassandra daughter of theirs who made it big wherever she went. (…)
Nevertheless, a small gap has been filled with the publication of Cristina de Stefano’s biography, Oriana Fallaci: The journalist, the agitator, the legend, translated by Marina Harss (Other Press, £21.99). It is the first major work to emerge in English since its subject’s death, and though it is not definitive, it does benefit from interviews with some of those still alive who were close to her and offers the most readable and approachable overview of Fallaci’s life yet available.
