Several memoirs, reminiscences, and commentaries about Bin laden have made their way into the public consciousness of the past decade, and yet there exist no biography that chronicles Bin Laden's life from birth to death. Perusal of these works shows that they usually seek to serve one of the three aims: to produce a portrait of Bin laden, to narrate the hunt for him, or examine the ideological and paramilitary strategies of Al-Qaeda in general or on some particular point. But to gain a balancing understanding of his background, the development of his ideas, formation of Al Qaeda and importantly why he believe what he does, one needs a biographical treatments that define all the three areas together, and no such book exists---- which has resulted in the emergence of conflicting versions of who Bin laden is and what his goals are over the years.
In AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, Bartholomew Okonkwo sidesteps the usual dichotomy, presenting instead a careful and extensive integration of the three aims in the exploration of Bin laden's evolution from his Saudi childhood as the son of a remote but reveled and very wealthy contractor all the way to the premature obituaries that contributed to his tragic death in Abbottabad Pakistan to arrive at a fresh understanding of the man, uncovering the roots of some of the most important--and dynamic forces that helped him in luring the U.S. into a financially ruinous "war on terrorism": as well as an invaluable look at that war and how the United States very nearly lost it, and the eventual defeat of Bin laden.
