Kissinger

This biography of Henry Kissinger is enhanced by Malcolm Hillgartner's outstanding narration. His delivery is lively, and he's a great storyteller--no half-bored professor intoning a history lecture here. While his pretty well-done imitations of Kissinger and President Nixon are distracting at first, they soon blend into the narration. The lengthy book presents a full portrait of Kissinger in all his egotistical, power-grubbing, brilliant complexity. It covers everything from his German childhood to his family's flight from the Nazis, his college years, and his rise to power as a controversial secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations. G.S.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

August 31, 1992
The fullest account of Kissinger's life and career to date, other than for his memoirs, this massive biography provides plenty of ammunition for the former Secretary of State's supporters and detractors. Growing up in Nazi Germany as an Orthodox Jew, Kissinger faced beatings and virulent anti-Semitism, and in Isaacson's view these burdened him with lifelong feelings of insecurity and distrust, as well as a yearning for stability and order. Isaacson, assistant managing editor of Time , sees Kissinger as the foremost American negotiator of this century, but one whose furtive, conspiratorial, at times deceitful personality shaped his conservative realpolitik and diplomatic maneuvering. He maintains that Kissinger's foreign policy, rooted in stealth and surprise, mirrored and reinforced the darker side of his increasingly jealous patron, President Nixon, and goes on to reveal how Chief of Staff Alexander Haig undercut his rival. He also pierces the secretive world of Kissinger's lucrative, globetrotting post-White House career as a business consultant. A spooky, engrossing portrait of the only European-style realist ever to guide U.S. foreign policy. Photos. First serial to Vanity Fair; BOMC main selection; QPB and History Book Club alternates; Reader's Digest Condensed Book selection; author tour.

October 4, 1993
The fullest account of Kissinger's life and career to date, other than his memoirs, this spooky, engrossing portrait--a BOMC main selection in cloth--provides plenty of ammunition for the former Secretary of State's supporters and detractors both. Photos. QPB alternate.