Thomas Aquinas wrote, in his Summa Theologica , "pride is the root of all sin," meaning this emotion causes man to turn from God and seek glory elsewhere, to venture down dark and evil paths. So, although the seven deposed dictators tracked down and interviewed by Riccardo Orizio are guilty of nearly all of the cardinal sins — most of the venal ones and some so outrageous and rare that they defy classification — it is pride that both made and unmade them.

Orizio chose these seven dictators precisely because they had been divested of all raiments of power. For example, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, whose 1977 coronation included 24,000 bottles of Moët et Chandon, and a 3.5-by-5-meter, gilded throne, was confined to a small house in Bangui until his death. Nexhmije Hoxha and her husband built a pyramid monument to themselves in Tirana, but she now lives an austere existence in her prison cell. Idi Amin, the "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea," lived until his death, in 2003, a humble, albeit comfortable, existence in Saudi Arabia.

In this series of kid-gloved interviews (one wishes Orizio had been more confrontational), what is most striking about these world dictators, other than their escapes from punishment, is their stubborn pride. Sixteen years after being ousted from power, Poland's Wojciech Jaruzelski obsessively asserts that his actions — the internment of thousands of dissidents, the declaration of war against his own country — were necessary and will prove commendable. Mira Markovic, wife of Slobadan Milosevic, still sees her husband as a hero and herself as an ideal wife and citizen. Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who ate his enemies, pitches his war crimes as a fight against imperial France.

As they emerge from Talk of the Devil, these men and women come off as being a lot like ordinary people. In fact, many of them today are ordinary people, scrambling to justify their actions and avoid shame. This raises an interesting and uncomfortable dilemma for the reader. It challenges us to think about how such power comes about before vilifying these dictators.

-Joshua David Stein