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Terms and conditions applyDictators' Homes
Peter York
Product details
Format: Book
Pages: 160
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Date Published: Oct 2005
Stock Code: 55142
Binding: Hardback
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Total votes: 0
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Review by Rob Wilmot, Director, QUBA New Media
What do Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler have in common? Besides a tendency to murderous despotism, that is. Well, Dictators’ Homes, as the title suggests, gives the reader an insight into the dictator as the home maker and interior designer. When I received this book through the post to review, I thought the people at RIBA Bookshops were having a laugh. My initial response was compounded when I turned the book over and saw which ‘celebrities’ endorsing the book were the established ‘C’ listers, Julie Burchill (the advocate of all things Chav) and Barry Humphries (the advocate of all things flamboyant). Then it struck me. This book might be intentionally Kitsch. Eventually I succumbed to the macabre interest welling up inside me and I read it; cover to cover, in one beguiling, absorbing session. After putting the book down I felt a shiver of voyeuristic guilt, as the book drew me back for more ‘hits’. The photography is compelling, and every time you go back for another look you notice another little detail that offers a challenging glimpse into psyche of the dictators themselves. In the end, I found myself touched. Not by the charm or the design of the homes, as these were for the most part tasteless, but by the fact that these dictators were people; actually quite sad people. I felt profoundly sorry for them. I have to admit that from the casually placed swastika Scatter Cushions in Hitler’s parlour, to the GCSE dreamscape ‘art’ on the walls of Saddam’s boudoir, this is book is a marvellously disturbing read.
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