G. T. Wilson

A Multifaceted Life

Reviewed: 04-26-23

This is a good read about a man with many contradictions. His younger years were indeed morally ambiguous but he lived an entire second life in retirement and built a legacy of philanthropy. The book is well done and the audio performance is fine if not entirely entertaining.

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Uncritical, and that’s the problem

Reviewed: 03-28-23

All you need to know about this book is the author spends more time describing the pets that the subjects have than the life choices that led to the sometimes struggling, always nomadic existence they live.

The author aims for an ethnography here, but really veers into an overly sympathetic and uncritical telling of the individual subjects’ stories. This is then used as a vehicle for criticism of consumer culture, capitalism, local ordinances, property rights, drug testing, workplace rules and any number of other social structures and norms that seem to impinge upon the author’s and subjects’ idealistic views. As it is, it’s a book that is uncritical of itself. It spends no time on the introspective “why” and nearly all time on the societal “why me.”

The author goes so far in immersing herself in the culture as to apply for a job at Amazon, which requires her to cheat on a pre-employment drug screen and to criticize such screening as discriminatory. She then laments the dangerous working conditions of conveyors and robots and stairs. These two things—evil drug screening and dangerous workplace equipment—are juxtaposed un-ironically.

That about sums it up. It’s an interesting story but one that yearns to be scientific and impartial while wallowing in partiality.

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Maybe you have to be older to appreciate it.

Reviewed: 03-24-23

It’s a good read.

Though it’s less about Everest, it’s a decent examination, from a first person perspective, of the drive and obsession that gets some people to the point of death on a high mountain. Beck’s life was in shambles while he sought the peak. Beck’s survival on Everest, while miraculous and celebrated, masked a neglected family life in need of rehabilitation almost as much as his physical wounds.

I think understanding this story may require some age and experience. I see all the reviews about how the story isn’t about Everest, and I think “yes it is, it’s just that Everest is only the symbol of unhealthy obsession that was only one stop on Beck’s journey home.”

Overall it was worth the time spent and a good companion read to Into Thin Air.

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1 person found this helpful

Great book, uneven performance.

Reviewed: 02-15-23

The book is outstanding. The performance??? Not quite. The narrator’s voice is fine. I just can’t get over how Audible qc let a guy who doesn’t know the difference between CAVALRY and CALVARY narrate a book on airmobile cavalry that uses the word cavalry hundreds of times. Same with some other notable misses on “defile” pronounced “Dee file” and airmobile pronounced “airmo beel.” These distractions are throughout the performance.

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Enjoyable but maybe not complete

Reviewed: 01-29-23

One gets the sense that the author didn’t get enough of the goods on the Van Winkles to tell a great story, and so had to inject a lot of his own story into this. The sad part is his own story isn’t all that interesting. He is a wealthy southerner who suffers from white guilt and wants to make sure you know he didn’t vote for Trump.

The Van Winkle stuff is good. The rest is just meh.

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Great and faithful story

Reviewed: 01-07-23

It’s interesting to learn about Truman the man bd Truman the president. No doubt both are important. But Truman the man lived values that it would be hard to find in politics since. I never realized what a consistent and vigorous force he was. Great book.

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Well, where to begin…

Reviewed: 04-02-22

This book reads like words from someone who just HAS to teach you things that you have already known for years. Will, it turns out, isn’t that great a person, but like most narcissists, he just might not know it.

The first half of the book is entertaining. The second half is an awful brag a thon about how great a star will is. Will has written one of the most self centered books I have ever read, and I expect some self centeredness in an autobiography!

The bottom line on this one: If you are looking for depth and confession, skip it. Smith is clear that he has always been about the product. This is just another facet of the Smith product. Even when he does open up about family, friends, and sex, it reads as if he is preaching to the reader about the RIGHT way to do even as he does wrong.

The recent event at the Oscars only go to show you what kind of man we are viewing here. He’s a guy whose violent narcissism can only thrive when coddled by family, friends, and a Hollywood culture that promotes it.

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It’s interesting enough

Reviewed: 06-14-21

The story continues. The book is solid enough. Clarke puts enough suspense into an otherwise fairly boring plot to keep you coming back. The payoff isn’t all that unique in 2061, but it does connect some dots and keeps some of the old characters in play. Overall a “not bad/worth the listen if you are already in the series” rating.

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A touch too much

Reviewed: 05-28-21

Overall too much fan service for my taste. It’s also a bit too woke. Not a great follow up.

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Scary and sad

Reviewed: 04-30-21

This is a tough read. It’s appalling, scary, sad, and a little thought provoking. It’s probably necessary to know how such things could happen, but not exactly comfortable to learn the real story.

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