I'm on my 3rd time through the audiobook version of The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam. Anyone else enjoy this book? Just absolutely THEE most enjoyable book I have ever read. I'm trying to figure out what makes me keep coming back to this book and wondering if there are any others like it out there.
I love it because:
It's a deeply personal take by a great writer
It's has an ambitious breadth and tells a wide range of interconnected stories - I thoroughly enjoy his approach - I never felt quite lost - but by the end I always want to start over.
It concentrates on all the 2nd to 5th tier policy people who made the Vietnam tragedy possible
I love Cold War history
The narrator on this audiobook is just a perfect match for the content
There's a kind of a smarmy, joyous glee in bringing some of these people down to scale. I just listened to the stuff on McGeorge Bundy and couldn't get enough.
It's a breathtakingly tragic story in the end - so many steps along the way - so many had a hand in letting this inch on and on.
Love the stuff on China, the background on losing China.
I've never encountered a book that gave me such a thorough understanding of events while at the same time being a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Are there other history/nonfiction authors like this?
mobyhex t1_j5p7607 wrote
Reply to Bookclub and Sources Wednesday! by AutoModerator
I'm on my 3rd time through the audiobook version of The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam. Anyone else enjoy this book? Just absolutely THEE most enjoyable book I have ever read. I'm trying to figure out what makes me keep coming back to this book and wondering if there are any others like it out there.
I love it because:
I've never encountered a book that gave me such a thorough understanding of events while at the same time being a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Are there other history/nonfiction authors like this?