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Amazing!

Revisado: 09-04-24

I knew most of the details of Shivaji’s life but thoroughly enjoyed this book for its prose, balanced views and the narration, which is exceptional.

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Blue flash!

Revisado: 04-14-20

Tom Weiner is the best! He takes a while to get used to (for me, even though I have heard his other works) but he has an unparalleled style.

The book is well written and informative.

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A different perspective

Revisado: 04-05-20

I liked the Chief-of-Staff angle to the Presidencies and it made for an interesting listen. Thought the intensity drop for Clinton presidency (and a couple of errors in the text) but the rest was great.

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Good, but...

Revisado: 03-23-20

The book is fine, but my biggest gripe is the repetition of oh-the-Russians-lied-to-us. I don't deny that they did and frankly wouldn't be surprised if the things were worse that reported. Having said that there should be a better way of conveying this than the repetition.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Engaging and well written

Revisado: 03-12-20

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not one dull moment! In my experience, authors aren’t good readers but O’Donnell is an exception. Five stars all around.

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overbearing self-righteous indignation

Revisado: 01-13-20

I wanted to like this book and while I agree with the findings, I was majorly disappointed at how it was presented. Born and brought up in India and now in the US working in Big Pharma, the subject matter is close to me both personally and professionally. I remember reading about the Ranbaxy case and was glad they got the stick (would've been great if someone had gone to jail as well). But overall the book was disappointing. Here are the problems I have with this book:

1. While it was great to read something that doesn't bash Big Pharma ;) the whole premise of Genrics-Bad, Branded-Good is a gross oversimplification of reality. Yes, its true that branded drugs for the most part are of higher quality than some generics, its not because of the goodness of the hearts of C-suites or any drive towards achieving highest quality. It's because they are under direct FDA control and face the dangers of class action lawsuits. Overseas generics are not and can therefore skimp on quality. Since quality is directly proportional to costs, one way to maximize profits is cutting down on quality. Hence to say West is more about quality and SE Asia in not, is incorrect. Author misses/overlooks the nuance.

2. The most vexing aspect of this book was the "corruption is in the Indian culture" narrative. To malign an entire population is wrong. I lived long enough in India to see corruption in action so I'm not naive about it. The book mentions a couple of employees who were caught redhanded making statements to the effect "doing-such-and-such-is-in-our-culture". If anyone believes in these dog ate my homework excuses, thats because they want to believe it. The author heaps well deserved scorn on Indians/Chinese who were implicated, but expresses mere disappointment at Americans' missteps (unless they were of Indian/Chinese origin). The fact is, every race, every nationality has good and bad people. The book mentions of several Indian employees working for tainted companies who did not want to participate in the nefarious schemes and put the blame squarely on higher management. Would anyone be surprised to find out about C-suites and boardrooms directly involved in crimes and coverups? Corporate greed is everywhere not just in India or China.

3. There were instances where the author makes emphatic accusations without proof. For example, when FDA agents were investigating plants in India they felt sick because the Indian employees spiked their food/water -- something that remains unproven and could well be unrelated. The plants were cheating with data fabrication etc and the evidence against that was ironclad, so why make petty accusations without evidence? Especially since, in hindsight, nothing happened to the health and safety of the inspectors.

4. Having heard a number of narrators absolutely butcher Indian (Hindi/Urdu) words, I thought nothing can shock me. Katherine Eban, take a bow. With her comically terrible pronunciations, she took it to a level I didn't know existed.

Drug product quality is an extremely important issue facing our societies. Relentless India/China bashing is not going to solve it. Fear mongering is not going to solve it.

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Good book on a frustrating topic

Revisado: 01-07-20

A good overview on the making of ACA with very good narration. The last chapter (Q&A with Obama) is of little use as all of 44th's answers were included in relevant sections of the book.

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Interesting new details

Revisado: 12-30-19

Born and brought up in India, I had heard/read/seen a lot about the massacre and thought I knew everything there was to know. I picked up this book in a spur of the moment and I did not regret. It starts out slow but is very thorough in its presentation. Listening to this book made me realize how little I really knew and had no idea about the thinking of the British, other than their relentless brutality. Covered in the book is the British mindset at the time -- of government officials and British civilians in India. There is no justification for the massacre, just their perspective.

I would highly recommend the book. There are several Hindi/Urdu words and phrases throughout the book and most of the time they are translated but not always. Neil Shah's narration was good. I was amazed that he employed, and pulled off. different voices/accents for all characters in the book. Don't think I have ever come across such broad coverage by a narrator. Having said that, Neil Shah's enunciation of Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu was mediocre at best.

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Beautiful book!

Revisado: 12-24-19

Even though there are no pictures in front of you, the writing and narration takes you to all the planets. I wanted this book to go on and on...

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Misguided

Revisado: 12-16-19

The book feels longer than it is because of the way its structured. The CIA may deserve every bit of scorn that the author heaps on it but the way it was presented, I came out thinking that the presidents were just as responsible if not more. Several anecdotes are stitched together with skimpy details.

I was hoping to see the various events from CIA perspective but there was little of note. I did get a lot of new ideas about which books to read next. For example, I learned about the British traitor Kim Philby from this book and read a book about him right after and it was amazing.

My recommendation: avoid.

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