in 2005 two tragediesthe asian tsunami and hurricane katrinaturned cnn reporter anderson cooper into a media celebrity dispatches from the edge coopers memoir of war disasters and survival is a brief but powerful chronicle of coopers ascent to stardom and his struggle with his own tragedies and demons cooper was 10 years old when his father wyatt cooper died during heart bypass surgery he was 20 when his beloved older brother carter committed suicide by jumping off his mothers penthouse balcony his mother by the way being gloria vanderbilt the losses profoundly affected cooper who fled home after college to work as a freelance journalist for channel one the classroom news service covering tragedies in farflung places like burma vietnam and somalia cooper quickly learned that as a journalist no matter how respectful you are part of your brain remains focused on how to capture the horror you see how to package it present it to others coopers description of these horrors from warravaged baghdad to faminewracked niger is poignant but surprisingly unsentimental in niger cooper writes he is chagrined then resigned when he catches himself looking for the worst cases to commit to film they die i live its the way of the world he writes in the final section of dispatches cooper describes covering hurricane katrina the story that made him famous the transcript of his showdown with louisiana sen mary landrieu in which cooper tells landrieu people in new orleans are ashamed of what is happening in this country right now is worth the price of admission on its own coopers memoir leaves some questions unansweredtheres frustratingly little about his personal life for examplebut remains a vivid modest selfportrait by a man who is proving himself to be an admirable courageous leader in a medium that could use more like him erica c barnett