BUT YOU DON'T LOOK ARAB

An Emmy Award–winning journalist reflects on her upbringing and career as the daughter of Syrian immigrants.

“My job as a journalist took me from presidential palaces to the smallest of makeshift shacks in a war zone or in a refugee center,” writes Gorani, who has spent three decades as a correspondent and anchor for CNN and other major news organizations. In addition to chronicling her journalism career, the author examines her life as the blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter of Syrian immigrants. Born in the U.S. but raised primarily in France, Gorani’s sense of self—or what she calls her “assorted patchwork of identities”—is a complex, mercurial, and ever-shifting entity. The author describes her privileged upbringing, path to becoming a journalist, and dissatisfaction with the antiseptic nature of the anchor position. In general, she longed to report from the field, and she often did, covering the Syrian war, the Arab Spring, the war in Iraq, and many other topics. Gorani organizes the book geographically rather than chronologically—e.g., Cairo, London, Paris, Baghdad, Istanbul. Within each section, she slips back and forth in time, recounting episodes from both her youth and adulthood. The narrative that results is sometimes disjointed and illogical. For example, Gorani’s childhood revelation that she wanted to become a journalist—a revelation you might expect to find early on—arrives three-quarters of the way through the text: In 1981, she writes, “I wanted to tell people what was happening in the world. I wanted to be the first to do so.” Overall, this is a sharp, well-written book that would have benefited from further editing, but it should appeal to aspiring journalists and those from marginalized ethnicities.

Despite a few minor flaws, an engaging account of one journalist’s life and work.