Thursday, March 18, 2010

Infidel ~ a teaser

When I went to my library's online catalog to look at Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007), I read this much from the Introduction and immediately put the book on hold.  I knew already that I really want to read this book.
One November morning in 2004, Theo van Gogh got up to go to work at his film production company in Amsterdam. He took out his old black bicycle and headed down a main road. Waiting in a doorway was a Moroccan man with a handgun and two butcher knives.

As Theo cycled down the Linnaeusstraat, Muhammad Bouyeri approached. He pulled out his gun and shot Theo several times. Theo fell off his bike and lurched across the road, then collapsed. Bouyeri followed. Theo begged, "Can't we talk about this?" but Bouyeri shot him four more times. Then he took out one of his butcher knives and sawed into Theo's throat. With the other knife, he stabbed a five-page letter onto Theo's chest.

The letter was addressed to me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm curious to read what you think of the book. Ayaan Hirshi Ali is a well-known, if slightly controversial figure in the Netherlands. It would be interesting to think how her argument comes across to someone from a different country.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

I assumed from this comment that you lived in the Netherlands, but today I posted another teaser from this book (I've never done that before) and went to see what I could learn about you. I found out:

(1) You moved your blog.
(2) You changed the name of your blog.
(3) You do indeed live in the Netherlands. (See link below.)
(4) You blog in English, though Dutch is your native language.

http://irisonbooks.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/thoughts-reading-in-different-languages/

Anonymous said...

Hello Boonie Jacobs,

I'm sorry that I never responded to your other teaser of the book. I thought I'd added your blog to my google reader, but it might've been on my other account, which you're right about: I changed blogs. All the other things you found out about me are true as well. It's weird how many little facts you can gather from blogs, don't you think?

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Hi Iris,

Welcome back. I see that I didn't tell you how to read my OTHER teaser about Infidel, which is here:
http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/infidel-teaser.html

I didn't read much of the book before it was due back at the library. However, a search for "Ayaan" turns up three posts, as of today, that include something I have written about her on my Bonnie's Books blog:
http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/search?q=ayaan

I have a question for you, which I'll post on your blog in a few minutes.