Dubi reviewed Citizen of the World by Director John English
Review of 'Citizen of the World' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is, I think, the first actual biography I ever read, so this is one of those cases where I feel weird writing a review because I'm not familiar with a genre. So take this with a grain of salt.
Trudeau is an incredibly interesting character. His life story has so many twists and turns and often doesn't seem to make sense. The access John English had here to Trudeau's own private and meticulous archive of letters, drafts and clippings adds much welcome insight into the psyche of this remarkable man, especially during his early years. Supplementing his extensive public writing with the even more extensive correspondence he had had throughout his life with a number of women adds a new perspective to this oft-told story, and English does this with flourish. He weaves the historical story of this exciting period in Quebec and Canada as a whole into the …
This is, I think, the first actual biography I ever read, so this is one of those cases where I feel weird writing a review because I'm not familiar with a genre. So take this with a grain of salt.
Trudeau is an incredibly interesting character. His life story has so many twists and turns and often doesn't seem to make sense. The access John English had here to Trudeau's own private and meticulous archive of letters, drafts and clippings adds much welcome insight into the psyche of this remarkable man, especially during his early years. Supplementing his extensive public writing with the even more extensive correspondence he had had throughout his life with a number of women adds a new perspective to this oft-told story, and English does this with flourish. He weaves the historical story of this exciting period in Quebec and Canada as a whole into the personal story in a way that pulls it away from the pages of the history books and brings it to life.
One issue that bothered me is the treatment of women in this book. There are many female protagonists, and English clearly tries to give them their fair place, but I couldn't help but notice that EACH AND EVERY WOMAN in this book is either "beautiful" or "stunning". Each and every one. Even just the random women who try to get close to Trudeau or other charismatic people. Were all these women "beautiful"? Was this characterization really necessary? It's a small thing, but in an otherwise sensitive depiction of the inner worlds of the characters in the book, this really stuck out like a sore thumb.
The story of Trudeau is fascinating for me because of the parallels I could draw from it to my own personal obsession - Israel's relations with its Arab minority. I found the emphasis here on the development of Trudeau's thinking about democratic values and the relationship between Canada and Quebec was truly enlightening when considering where Israel and Canada diverged in their treatment of their respective national-religious-linguistic minorities. This is something I hope to give more thought to in the future, but this book certainly provided a good starting point for this thinking for me.