Chasing Hope

Chasing Hope

by Nicholas D. Kristof
Genres: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
Published on May 14, 2024
Pages: 480
Format: Audiobook Source: Library
Amazon

From New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and best-selling author Nicholas D. Kristof, an intimate and gripping memoir about a life in journalism

“Nick Kristof takes us behind the scenes as he risks his life to shine a light on the world’s most pressing problems and blaze a trail to a better future. In a time when trust in journalism is in jeopardy, his honesty, humility, and humanity are rays of hope.”—Adam Grant, author of Hidden Potential

Since 1984, Nicholas Kristof has worked almost continuously for The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist, becoming one of the foremost reporters of his generation. Here, he recounts his event-filled path from a small-town farm in Oregon to every corner of the world.

Reporting from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo, while traveling far afield to India, Africa, and Europe, Kristof witnessed and wrote about century-defining events: the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, the Darfur genocide in Sudan, and the wave of addiction and despair that swept through his hometown and a broad swath of working-class America. Fully aware that coverage of atrocities generates considerably fewer page views than the coverage of politics, he nevertheless continued to weaponize his pen against regimes and groups violating basic human rights, raising the cost of oppression and torture. Some of the risks he took while doing so make for hair-raising reading.

Kristof writes about some of the great members of his profession and introduces us to extraordinary people he has met, such as the dissident whom he helped escape from China and a Catholic nun who browbeat a warlord into releasing schoolgirls he had kidnapped. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic. Side by side with the worst of humanity, you always see the best.

This is a candid memoir of vulnerability and courage, humility and purpose, mistakes and learning—a singular tale of the trials, tribulations, and hope to be found in a life dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

I’ve read several of Nick Kristof’s books that he wrote with his wife Sheryl WuDunn. When I was on Twitter I followed him. I personally blame him for crushing my soul on Election Night 2016 when he tweeted very early that the New York Times was calling the election for Trump. A few days prior to the 2020 election I tweeted about that and said that I wasn’t sure if I should preemptively mute him or not for my peace of mind and he saw it answered with, “Sorry.” (I don’t think he was.) So when I saw that he had written a memoir, I rushed to listen to it.

This is a hard hitting book.  It starts with a story about him being on a crashing plane in the Congo.  You find out that the plane is crashing because it hit a person on takeoff and the body is still hanging off the landing gear.  If that story gives you pause, you might just want to skip the rest of this book.  

He was a foreign correspondent at the end of the era of unlimited budgets and limited oversight.  He and his wife were the only New York Times reporters in all of China during the Tiananmen Square massacre. He has been held at gunpoint on many continents. He’s snuck across many borders in many ways to get stories. He’s interviewed rape survivors and parents of starving children. Some of these stories may stick with you long after you finish the book.

His family’s story is also interesting.  His father’s family was nobility in the area that shifted from being Poland/Ukraine/Romania.  They had to flee in World War II.  His father was a refugee who got to western Europe because of the personal intervention of some people who didn’t have to get involved. That feeling of obligation to pay the favor forward has come up several times in Nick’s reporting career.  

He’s also very clear on times when he failed to do the right thing.  These were frustrating to listen to but I admire him for including them in the book.  They would have been easy to leave out.  No one would have known that he left out stories that didn’t put him in the best light. 

This book would be interesting for people who have read his other writing or reporting but also for anyone who likes to read about journalism or recent history from someone who was there for a lot of it.