Stewart Gooderman

Eerily Prescient

Revisado: 05-28-20

A great book, if a bit too long. If you can get through the first section, it gathers speed and intrigue with an absolute slam bang finish. That first section, about the history of medicine is really not necessary to understand the events of 1918 and 1919 and beyond. The author could have really summed this all up in a page or two, and the book would have proceeded at a much faster and more interesting pace. What was totally unexpected was the last chapter, the Coda, which was added after the book was originally written in 2005. If we compare what the author said then and look at the situation we find ourselves in today, one cannot help but feel that the storm we're in now had been completely predicted and basically preventable had we begun to take these viruses seriously years ago.

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Persuasion or Admission?

Revisado: 05-19-20

I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I travel to my office in San Francisco from the East Bay and see block after block of homeless and various other street people, I would brood. But unlike others who would look at our street people and think "these are lazy, filthy subhumans," I wondered, "In a city like San Francisco, where there are so many people who have incredible amounts of wealth, wealth that would stagger the imagination of nearly any person if they *truly* knew, yet there are so many people who have no money, no home, no future and no hope. The situation just didn't seem right and somehow didn't seem fair. And I felt that it certainly wasn't necessary for a homeless person to have the same trappings as an Elon Musk, yet how could a person like Elon Musk possibly need all the wealth he has when a homeless person has to beg for food and water when even a meager income could get him off the street. How much nicer our City would be! No longer having people following you begging for money, clean streets, happy people, and even with that Mr Musk would still have tons more money than he could possibly need to live a good life on.

Little did I know that as I started reading Mr Robinson's book, I, who thought myself a fairly liberal-in-attitude person, was not that at all. What I was actually espousing were the core principles of a socialist! And as I listened to Mr Roinson's persuasions, I marveled at the fact that I generally think out problems and solutions very much as a classic socialist does.

Here in the USA, the term "socialism" means so many different things to so many different people. If you ask 10 people what does socialism means, you'll probably get 10 different answers. So many people abhor the word "socialism" yet so many American Institutions that people adore are rooted in Socialism. If you like Medicare, Social Security, universal health insurance and even minimum wage, 8 hour work days, vacation and sick days, and farm supports, guess what? You like socialism, for these are socialistic ideas!

The author (who appears to be incredibly well read in spite of his young age) is a very entertaining narrator and does a good job of providing the basics. The central third part of the book, where he gets into the evolution of Socialism, its various forms and nuances can get a bit tedious, but the first and third parts are not only informative, but entertaining as well. He essentially says to you, why not look at a glass half full instead of half empty, and brushes away all the illogical logic that has accumulated over decades of ill-fitted reasoning.

Mr Robinson may not convince you, but it will be very difficult for you to resist.

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The Show told with Panache

Revisado: 05-06-20

Much, if not all of what is in this book I knew from various news reports. But Karl reads his book with such a wonderful conversational style that it makes you want to keep listening, in spite of the continuing scandals, lies, and incompetencies. By the time you finish other books on this very subject you can simply feel exhausted, numb to the constant drone of scandal after scandal after scandal. But Karl, in his enthusiastic style makes them seem like you're watching a farcical comedy, wondering how much worse (and funnier) can it get? And then it gets worse! But comedy often will bring home the point with far greater clarity than tragedy can. The last chapter brings the issues into lightening focus. He doesn't mention names, but the playbook he describes is exactly what the neoconservative movement began decades ago, rightly says that we have only one way to herald it's demise: CONSTANTLY PRESENT THE TRUTH. The truth always lives on, the lies do not.

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An exhausting compilation.

Revisado: 04-16-20

What authors Rucker and Leonnig have done is condense three years of scandal, chaos, betrayal, ineptitude, criminality, corruption, and incompetence into less than a day's worth of listening. I just finished it, and I am utterly exhausted. And to think that we're not even into the middle of the year after this saga ends, and the authors have more than enough for several updates!

Many of the situations about which they have written I was aware of, but often Rucker & Leonnig add the behind the scenes conversations of the people involved to give the book a running narrative to keep you going. The one person who, for me, came out looking better than I ever thought he would was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. I thought he was totally wrong for the position at the time, but he came across as understanding what he was supposed to do and acted like an adult throughout his tenure. I continually got the feeling that all the others were all masochists, getting pleasure at being constantly humiliated, put down, abused and demeaned.

It also points out to me the sheer corruption of the Republican Congressional Caucus, who have allowed all this to happen to our country. They are the true enemy of our country.

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Not much of a scandal anymore

Revisado: 07-23-18

I wanted to read this books because it was (supposedly) such a scandal when it was first published, and also to see how similar the 1964 musical is to the source material.

At this point, Shulberg's postscript to the novel, written many years later was more of an eye opener than the novel itself. It pointed out that what was scandalous behavior back in the 1930s has become so commonplace today that the book won't even raise an eyebrow. And it doesn't. The listen isn't boring, but it isn't jaw dropping either. The Sammy Glick's of today are far more sinister and evil than the Sammy of then. Schulberg's Glick almost becomes laughable when compared to today's thugs.

The two short stories that were expanded to become the novel are included here and actually serve as bookends to the novel.

Steve Lawrence's portrayal as Glick in the 1964 musical comes across as far thuggish than in the novel and by 1964 that was absolutely necessary in order for audiences to relate to the character.

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Surprisingly alluring

Revisado: 05-23-18

There have been many people who have been critical of the reader of this work of fiction. I am not one of them. In fact, I found his reading to be nothing short of perfect. He kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book. I had known the basic plot via reading up on the silent film Greed which was based on it (it was recently on TCM but I couldn't stay up to see it). Nonetheless, I had a hard time breaking up my listen due to the sheer allure of the reader's performance.

It is an interesting work of fiction. Yes, there are racist undertones, but so has Dickens' Oliver Twist. And attitudes in the 1890s were very different than today. I think the ending is a bit brusk, and the flow of events reminds me of Oscar Hammerstein's treatment of Edna Ferber's Show Boat (half the show just dramatizes Ravanel and Magnolia's love affair, and then swiftly goes into Ravanel's desertion, Magnolia on her own, and the reunion). But it was a very enjoyable listen.

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Astonishing Look at Silicone Valley

Revisado: 02-23-18

As a person who works in health care in San Francisco, I was eager to learn more about those who earn their living in the technology field. This book did not disappoint. It should be read by every woman *and* man who either work or aspire to work within the many walls of technology. Many of us know that women had a harder time of it in technology, but the reasons were vague. This sets the out: how the barriers started and how and why they continue.
The author read her text fairly well.

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Well written and documented.

Revisado: 02-04-18

David Cay Johnston knows Trump better than Trump knows himself. And he takes his knowledge gathered over many years and pairs Trump's lies and deceits with facts and actual quotes to show what a con man Trump is and, more importantly, how he is letting his administration destroy, yes destroy, our country and all that we hold sacred (and take for granted.)

The introduction is by Johnston himself and I would have vastly preferred him reading his own book to narrator Danny Campbell. I found Campbell's recitation somewhat banal and boring.

Finally, there are some very sloppy edits.

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I Claudius Redux

Revisado: 01-18-18

First, kudos to Holter Graham for a truly outstanding narration, one of the best I've heard in an audiobook. Clear voice, well enunciated words, maintained superb sentence structure. An absolute pleasure to listen to.

Second, I must pronounce my prejudice: I cannot stand Donald Trump. I'm a 67 year old native New Yorker who knows full well all the shenanigans Trump has been a part of over these many years. This book reinforced every one of my feelings about this loathsome individual.

As I listened, I kept on getting the feeling that I was listening to a modern day "I Claudius." The lies, the back stabbing, the jockeying for position and power, and the depravity. All that was missing was the actual poisoning (we're more civilized than that today, I hope.) So on one hand, it made for a very entertaining story. On the other, it made for a truly frightening feeling that this wonderful country of ours in being torn apart, not only by a chief executive who never in a million years should have been put in the position he now holds, but by a group of people who know he's as dangerous as an atomic weapon, yet support, lie, and cover up for him putting party first, and the good of their own country last.

A word to the author: when shall we expect a sequel? So much more has happened since the events in this book, that I hope you are readying at least an update.

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Interesting Background Material

Revisado: 07-25-16

Lesley Blume does a fine narrative about Hemingway's life that lead to his writing his first great work, "The Sun Also Rises" as well as its effect on Hemingway's future life and the people he interacted with during this period. Happily the Epilogue goes into some detail on the people upon whom Hemingway based his characters, many years after the book was released in 1926. For people who have read various materials on Hemingway's life, there may not be much that is new here. Yet, Blume presents Hemingway straightforwardly, warts and all.
I think the narrative could have been condensed somewhat, but this may be the fault of the narration by Jonathan Davis, who is inconsistent in his reading speed. Sometimes his pace is so slow, I got very close to double-timing the playback.

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