A review by meredith_w
The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre

informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

3.5 Stars.  I’m conflicted about how much I liked this book – it was both fascinating and frustrating. The amount of detail in this book is undeniably impressive – but also perhaps what brought down my enjoyment.  There were SO many details, almost to the point that I often lost momentum while reading.  There were many details I really appreciated, such as the mundane day-to-day experiences of the hostages mostly sitting around and waiting during the siege. I appreciated the details regarding the layout and furnishing of the embassy, the hygiene habits of the hostages, and the types of protestors and onlookers that attended the scene. But other details, such as the specific type of rope used for abseiling, and background stories of the players participating in a snooker championship (that happened to be occurring during the siege), made me question what value they added to the storyline. 

 

I’m mostly disappointed about how the women were written – they received a very cliche edit. The women were often singularly described as ‘weeping’.  Perhaps it’s how it all went down (I certainly wasn’t there, nor did I do the research). It was an incredibly stressful situation, and weeping would be a completely understandable reaction. However, I was very aware that whenever something particularly stressful occurred, the individual reactions of the men were described, whereas all the women were lumped into the same reaction: almost always weeping. There was more descriptive writing about the random snooker players, and about Lock’s self-imposed constipation, than what the women experienced. Except a random comment about the elevated stress causing the female hostages to ‘menstruate heavily’, as if implying that all the women experienced this reaction. This seems unlikely. As the siege was only six days, all the women would have had to have already been (or close to) menstruating for this to occur. Maybe all their cycles were synched up, I don’t know. I’m guessing one woman experienced this reaction, and therefore all the women experienced the same reaction, because, obviously. (Women <eye roll>, amiright??) Reading how the women were portrayed reminded me that I (a woman) wasn’t the target audience.  This book was written by a man, and (generally) for men, and therefore most readers likely wouldn’t be too critical about how the women were portrayed (i.e. all heavily menstruating and all constantly weeping). Also noted: ‘Hysterical’ was (of course) used as a descriptor of the women’s behaviour, and Prime Minister Thatcher was frequently referred to as ‘Mrs.’ Thatcher. 

 

Look, I know the women weren't the main characters in this story.  Men were the perpetrators and the instigators.  Men managed the situation; men made the decisions (with the exception of 'Mrs.' Thatcher), and men were the heroes. They were even the snooker players. I get it, these were the realities of gender roles in 1980. But I was frustrated with the portrayal the female hostages received. The women lacked nuance, and were reduced to stereotypes and tired, sexist cliches. 

 

Anyway, I can (mostly) look past this – it was an impressive piece of investigative journalism about an event I knew nothing about. It was an excellent mix of extremely thorough research, narrative storytelling, and touches of humour that provided relatable levity. I appreciated learning about this wild piece of history – and also about Cliff Thorburn winning a snooker championship in 1980.