del Corso's Gallery

Wow. Awesome story about war. Makes war more real than anything you see on tv or read in the news. A very personal story. Great psychological drama about the photographer and his conflicts.

It is somewhat hard to describe this book in a few sentences. Even though mostly fiction, the main character plays an uncanny resemblance to the author himself. Something that is especially noticeable if you ever read Caputo's Autobiography "Means of Escape." The picture this book paints of Beirut is frighteningly realistic, something that even non-fiction books written about the War fail to achieve. Likewise, the portrayal of a photojournalist, one who is asked to risk his life "to beat AP by 5 min." is superb by any account. Anyone who is familiar with Caputo's literary work knows how good this man is at molding and developing complex, intelligent, and memorable characters. Delcorso's Gallery is a prime example of this. I urge anyone who at the least is curious about what happened in Beirut to read this novel in addition to the history books out there. I do not know if history will repeat itself somewhere else in the future, but it is important to be aware. Faisal Juma.