in extremis the life of war correspondent marie colvin

Rather than being Marie Colvin, she becomes her father. His death shattered Colvin’s sense of strength and self. She’s a young adult attending Yale University. You see the first example of this when Colvin loses her father. It’s like forgetting that people originally pick-up bad or unhealthy behaviors to medicate or soften something else that’s going on. It obviously plays out in her relationships and how she handles her work. While reading the biography, you can literally visualize the deterioration of Colvin’s psyche as a result of this. Hilsum, and all of Colvin’s nearest and dearest, willingly forgot that Colvin isn’t a caricature. Despite her work and everything she did for our global society, people don’t like being used or watching others be used.Īnd Hilsum missed that while writing. Considering only those ideas at their shallowest base, readers won’t like Colvin. It resulted in forced partnerships that neither side wanted nor had interest in with the other party. She’d force monogamy onto her partners, or they’d try to force it onto her, without ever having a real conversation about their relationship. Such as how Colvin used rich men for their wealth and opportunities, even when she didn’t particularly like any of them. Throughout the biography, Hilsum describes Colvin’s relationships in a disturbing light. Taken at face value, this biography portrays Colvin as a dedicated war correspondent with an incredibly mean and vain personality. On multiple occasions, it seems only the reader sees below the surface of the words. This made her somewhat blind when telling her story.īut not all readers share those blinders. Lindsey Hilsum was a friend and mentee of Colvin. Mostly however, I believe my criticisms fall onto the author. And nothing I say will negate her work, but it might affect her person. Knowing only that, Colvin is an admirable figure.

In extremis the life of war correspondent marie colvin