A Thousand Suns (Hardcover)

by Dominique Lapierre (Author) "In that spring of 1960, fifteen years after the collapse of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, two political tyrannies still held sway in Western Europe..." (more)
Key Phrases: cyanide balls, erectile nerves, leper children, Caryl Chessman, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Dominique Lapierre was one of the pioneers of the subjective news story, a man who was never afraid to put himself, both physically and emotionally, at the heart of his reports. It is a style that has often been imitated, but as A Thousand Suns shows, it has seldom been bettered. In 1944, Lapierre won his own footnote in history by misdirecting the German tanks and accelerating the liberation of Paris by two days. You could argue that ever since, he has been making sure that other people get the credit they deserve.

A Thousand Suns is both a personal memoir and a testament to the notable characters Lapierre met along the way, from the great and the good, such as Mother Teresa, to the infamous (such as Caryl Chessman, who was executed in San Quentin in 1960), to the more anonymous. Throughout, Lapierre is always looking for the personal details that make the stories come alive. And he finds them. He discovers that General von Choltitz, the Nazi in charge of occupied Paris, had had an overcoat made in the summer of 1944 "because he thought it would be cold in a POW camp." Kozo Okamato, the only surviving Red Army Faction (RAF) member to bomb Lod airport, tells him he became a terrorist after being dumped twice by girlfriends. "At the time the RAF seemed a less demanding lover." These are the insights that animate Lapierre's work, and he is never afraid to find the humanity in even the most apparently evil of people.

However, this tendency is both a virtue and his undoing, as Lapierre sometimes allows his obvious affection for his subject to cloud all judgment. An example can be found in his accounts of Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Mountbatten was a known charmer, but his record on the partition of India does not bear scrutiny. His fudging of the boundaries, and the speed with which he acted, was undoubtedly a significant factor in the mass bloodshed that followed. Lapierre lets him off the hook with a single sentence: "By extricating his country from the Indian wasps' nest without spilling a drop of British blood, Mountbatten had saved Great Britain from one of those colonial wars of which France had made a speciality." Even for a partisan observer, this simply will not do. But a journalist who cares too much is always preferable to one who doesn't care at all, and Lapierre especially so, for the range and depth of his reportage, if nothing else. He harks back to a more innocent age when public figures were more open and trusting; few journalists would get anything like the access to equivalent figures today. Enjoy him, warts and all. You won't see his like again. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly
Blending autobiographical memoir and popular history, French journalist Lapierre's (City of Joy) engrossing chronicle focuses on men and women whose courage, determination or resistance made a difference. Many of these movers and shakers are people he interviewed and highlighted in his previous bestselling books. Some of them fit awkwardly into the narrative's overall heroic mold: Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benites El Cordobes brings out Lapierre's corny side; Nazi general Dietrich von Choltitz, who refused to carry out Hitler's orders to raze Paris, was, as Lapierre notes, unaware of the imminent arrival of reinforcements. But we do get real heroes, including Mahatma Gandhi, Raphael Matta (a Parisian businessman who became an African game reserve warden and was eventually murdered by poachers) and Ehud Avriel (the refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who helped engineer the clandestine mass immigration of European Jews to the fledgling state of Israel). Though long-winded at times, Lapierre tells incredible tales of true-life adventure, and he is a valuable eyewitness to history, whether he is joining castaways in the mass exodus of Algeria's French population following that colony's independence or making an unprecedented automobile trip across the USSR in 1956. A bestseller in France, Italy and Spain, this book humanizes many of the cataclysmic events of the tumultuous century now ending. Agent, Morton Janklow.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 476 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (March 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446525359
• ISBN-13: 978-0446525350
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,436,408 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make Your Hobby Your Profession ! ! ! ! ! ! ! , May 13, 2005

By	Datar (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Thousand Suns (Paperback)

1. 'A Thousand Suns', a fascinating book by Dominique Lapierre, famous author of books like `Is Paris Burning' and `City of Joy' takes its title from and Indian proverb that the author chanced upon during his stay in South India. It comes from (as indicated by the author) "Behind every cloud, there are a thousand suns". A perfect message for life in present day's gloomy outlook of life.

2. It goes without saying that the book, which has such a beautiful and motivating title ought to be full of life energy and epitomize everything that is the very essence of meaningful life. This book actually is a byproduct, but a beautiful and useful one. It consists of 15 independent well researched real life stories, which the author encountered in the run up to doing a specific assignment mainly related to the prime characters or places related to these stories, initially as a news correspondent and later as a writer.

3. At the end thus, he filed his reports / wrote his books, but the enduring beauty of life enshrined in the background of these reports / books remained. The author has really done a wonderful service to mankind by writing this book; else such beautiful pearls of human endeavor, wisdom, perseverance and enterprise would have been lost forever.

4. Written in a simple style with stress on delivering the message right, the author might have not achieved perfection of narrative, but what needed to be achieved i.e. delivery of the essentials of beauty of life has been achieved with perfection.

5. It is rightly said that `make your hobby your profession and you would not have to work for a day'. It is evident from reading this book that Mr Lapierre seems to have not worked for a day but have thoroughly enjoyed this life following his passion for writing.

6. All those who have faith in life and mankind and all those whose faith on these is wavering for some reasons must read this book to derive the requisite benefit.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rivetting, if not accurate, read, June 4, 2000

By	Karina Bray (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Thousand Suns (Paperback)

This dude knows how to write. Throughout the book, his passion, respect and sometimes joy as he describes life's adventures and the amazing people he has met permeate his writing. He brings the events to life, makes them very real.

In particular, his horrific account of the death of Caryl Chessman brought tears to my eyes. How could it be that in a so-called civilised country such deaths continue? I was outraged and appalled to learn from Lapierre that of the 500 death executions since 1977, 'seventy-five concerned men and women whose innocence was proven after their death.' 75 innocent people killed! Mon dieu! Er no, actually -- I've since found out from various anti-death penalty web sites that in fact 75 (or now around 85) people were released (ALIVE) from death row after their innocence was proven. The distinction, I think, is rather important!

He also claims that 'California has remained faithful to its gas chambers' as a manner of execution. As far as I could find out from various government and anti-death penalty web sites, California uses primarily, if not solely, lethal injection to dispose of its unwanted citizens.

Lapierre's account of 'tarantulas as hairy as apes' in Africa would excite ecologists -- who perhaps foolishly think wild tarantulas exist only in the Americas -- as much as his (unfortunately mistaken) sighting of a rhinoceros excited his host in the Ivory Coast.

Characterising Mohatma Gandhi with temporal accuracy, if somewhat dismissively, as 'an elderly half-naked Indian...living in poverty' no doubt adds credence to his amazement at the 'miraculous alchemy' and mutual understanding that existed between Gandhi and Lord Mountbatten. But is it really so miraculous when one considers that the middle-class Gandhi had studied for and received a law degree from London University and practiced as a barrister in South Africa for 20 years? Is it so miraculous that two educated men with experience in and a good understanding of each other's cultures could then understand each other?

Obviously any account of events is going to carry some subjectivity, like his rather derogatory characterisation of Gandhi, but it's disturbing when things presented as facts, like the huge number of innocent death row victims, are blatantly incorrect. It made me wonder how many other factual errors I'd inadvertantly absorbed as truth.

Nevertheless, it is great read, lively and interesting, and his contribution to the welfare of the poorest of the poor in India goes beyond admirable. Just take the 'facts' with a grain of salt!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This compelling anthology moved me deeply!, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

The events Dominique experienced in his professional and personal life are related in a very witty and soulful manner. It is a book I am proud to own in my library and give as a gift, knowing the proceeds are given to a great humanitarian cause!