What Went Wrong

Title: What Went Wrong
Author: Bernard Lewis
Genre: Informative, Non-Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 186
Reason Read: Class Assignment
Rating:

My Thoughts

I was required to read WHAT WENT WRONG for my English class. As far as the writing is concerned, I felt like Lewis repeated himself way too much. I also thought the book was too dryly written. It felt like I was reading an encyclopedia entry rather than someone’s take on the subject. It was so boring.

Seeing Islam from this POV provided a lot of insight. However, as I’m an outsider, Islamic beliefs and actions may seem strange or oppressive to me no matter how they’re explained. Whereas, a Muslim may see them as normal, biased, or anti-Islam depending on how and who explains these beliefs. Because I don’t know a lot about Islam, there’s no way for me to tell if what Lewis says is just one way of looking at things.

Even though I felt like I gained a lot of insight, the content felt very biased. I keep wondering how people of the Islamic faith–more particularly, one from each faction and level of devoutness–would feel about this book. Would it seem biased like I think it does? Or, would it seem accurate? I’d be interested in reading the same content but from a Muslim’s POV to help me make a less biased decision about it.

Update: When I posted my review on Shelfari, my friend Rummanah wrote the following comment: “I personally have not read books by Bernard Lewis, but looking at the summaries and inside flap, he is very anti-Islam and Middle East. I’m a Muslim and my father is very well versed and well read on the field. I don’t have any desire to read it. Just my two cents.” I think I’ll go with her take on it.