redservant's review against another edition
4.0
7.5/10 - Intricately researched, fascinating tale of the life of eccentric con-artist L.Ron Hubbard. The book contrasts Hubbard's pulp-adventure fantasies about his life with the even more strange and intriguing reality. This is a life story that plays out like a bizarre farce as the main character continues to botch everything he’s involve with, tripping incrementally towards success (of a sort).
While Hubbard was successful as charismatic guru and fantasist, he was especially destructive in his personal life. It could be difficult to read at points where his own narcissism and paranoia steam rolled over his wives, children and followers. His angry reaction to his son Quentin’s suicide and his delivery of a long, defamatory disownment of his daughter Alexis (from his 2nd wife who he claimed he’d never married and was actually a spy) stick out as particularly difficult moments to read about.
If there’s a flaw to the book for me it is that it doesn’t explore the potential psychological sources of Hubbard’s extreme personality. Of course, Hubbard being long dead means he can’t be examined by a mental health professional, and even if he was living he wouldn’t have allowed it. But, I think that this book glosses over the potential effects of some pretty intense family dynamics and abandonments in Hubbard’s early life (e.g. his family constantly moving, his aunts intense favouritism towards him, and his parents both moving to Guam without him). In general it presents his early life as pretty rosy (which it was compared to that of a lot of ‘cult leader’ types) but I think that misses some important elements of his personality formation. Perhaps, however, such speculations are best left to trained mental health professionals and the author may have felt more secure writing in the mode of history.
There are some fascinating details in this book and I’m so glad it was published, despite the church of Scientology’s best efforts to keep it away from the public.
While Hubbard was successful as charismatic guru and fantasist, he was especially destructive in his personal life. It could be difficult to read at points where his own narcissism and paranoia steam rolled over his wives, children and followers. His angry reaction to his son Quentin’s suicide and his delivery of a long, defamatory disownment of his daughter Alexis (from his 2nd wife who he claimed he’d never married and was actually a spy) stick out as particularly difficult moments to read about.
If there’s a flaw to the book for me it is that it doesn’t explore the potential psychological sources of Hubbard’s extreme personality. Of course, Hubbard being long dead means he can’t be examined by a mental health professional, and even if he was living he wouldn’t have allowed it. But, I think that this book glosses over the potential effects of some pretty intense family dynamics and abandonments in Hubbard’s early life (e.g. his family constantly moving, his aunts intense favouritism towards him, and his parents both moving to Guam without him). In general it presents his early life as pretty rosy (which it was compared to that of a lot of ‘cult leader’ types) but I think that misses some important elements of his personality formation. Perhaps, however, such speculations are best left to trained mental health professionals and the author may have felt more secure writing in the mode of history.
There are some fascinating details in this book and I’m so glad it was published, despite the church of Scientology’s best efforts to keep it away from the public.
devbot's review against another edition
3.0
It was interesting to learn more about L. Ron's life and to have some perspective about Scientologists. This book is really poorly written (and edited), I often found myself thinking entire chapters were irrelevant, and frequently had to turn back a page when I realized the paragraph I was reading was actually a quote the author had taken from somebody else rather than his own voice.
The whole thing is a mess, but still interesting. I would argue that the issues with respect to publishing and the CoS pushing against it are probably just as likely related to the book being so poorly written/edited that a publisher really wasn't in a big rush to push it on the shelves.
If you think Scientologists are interesting you should read this.
The whole thing is a mess, but still interesting. I would argue that the issues with respect to publishing and the CoS pushing against it are probably just as likely related to the book being so poorly written/edited that a publisher really wasn't in a big rush to push it on the shelves.
If you think Scientologists are interesting you should read this.
mayoroffailure's review against another edition
4.0
L. Ron Hubbard is self absorbed, Narcissistic, insane, and a pathological liar. All of these things were unbeknownst to me before I read the book but it has now become abundantly clear.
I had been interested in Scientology ever since several Hollywood stars had come out as followers, not in the sense that I wanted to become a Scientologist, but rather that I was curious how in the world so many were convinced to tithe, tithe, tithe. One day I was browsing the internet and had come across an article that revealed this books existence. When I read the article I learned that it had been published in the eighties but blocked from publication in the US until now, a rather interesting fact. That peaked my interest and filled me with a curiosity to learn why the church would fight so hard to get a book blocked from publication, so I bought it.
The book itself is not so much an analyzation of the church and its founder but rather what the title suggests, its a story of L. Ron Hubbard from the start of his life to its finish. Russell Miller tells the story of LRH's life from an unbiased view and cites all of his sources with great care and detail, and as a result the book reads like a 60 Minutes segment.
I was most shocked at just how horrible of person LRH was, I had vaguely heard of him from his work in Science Fiction back in the pulp era but I didn't know anything specifically. What I came to learn was that LRH was a charlatan and insane narcissist of the highest order, a man who is so self absorbed that he needs to feel as though he is important. I think that his obsession with feeling important comes from the days of his spoiled childhood (Russell throws in some interesting family stories about this at the begging of the book) where LRH was the most beloved of all his fathers children. That need for importance drove Hubbard through his life until he finally ended up with a body of followers who worshiped him like Jesus, but that need would also be his downfall.
As he progressed through life he became ever more paranoid and insane, and I think that he had been lying so often and so much that he actually began to believe what he was telling people. This insanity led to the banishing of his own children, two divorces, a rash of suicides from his followers, federal investigation, and the banishment from several countries. When Hubbard set out to make his mark on the world he was often looking after the monetary gains of his choices, this becomes most evident in the chapter where Mr. Miller chronicles Hubbard's time as a Satanist under the tutelage of one of Alastair Crowley's students. Hubbard left the satanic cult because it was yielding him no money and elected to bring out his master money making plan, invent a religion.
Hubbard did just that and the rest is history, as his mental state declined he became ever more paranoid and violent until his eventual death in 1986. I learned a lot about Scientology and its estranged founder through my reading and believe that I have come away with my answer that I was looking for. It would seem that if anything, LRH was charismatic, and it was that charm that led people to the cult and kept them there, no matter what happened. I would recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in Scientology for its wealth of information on the cults history, and after all, protection begins with education.
I had been interested in Scientology ever since several Hollywood stars had come out as followers, not in the sense that I wanted to become a Scientologist, but rather that I was curious how in the world so many were convinced to tithe, tithe, tithe. One day I was browsing the internet and had come across an article that revealed this books existence. When I read the article I learned that it had been published in the eighties but blocked from publication in the US until now, a rather interesting fact. That peaked my interest and filled me with a curiosity to learn why the church would fight so hard to get a book blocked from publication, so I bought it.
The book itself is not so much an analyzation of the church and its founder but rather what the title suggests, its a story of L. Ron Hubbard from the start of his life to its finish. Russell Miller tells the story of LRH's life from an unbiased view and cites all of his sources with great care and detail, and as a result the book reads like a 60 Minutes segment.
I was most shocked at just how horrible of person LRH was, I had vaguely heard of him from his work in Science Fiction back in the pulp era but I didn't know anything specifically. What I came to learn was that LRH was a charlatan and insane narcissist of the highest order, a man who is so self absorbed that he needs to feel as though he is important. I think that his obsession with feeling important comes from the days of his spoiled childhood (Russell throws in some interesting family stories about this at the begging of the book) where LRH was the most beloved of all his fathers children. That need for importance drove Hubbard through his life until he finally ended up with a body of followers who worshiped him like Jesus, but that need would also be his downfall.
As he progressed through life he became ever more paranoid and insane, and I think that he had been lying so often and so much that he actually began to believe what he was telling people. This insanity led to the banishing of his own children, two divorces, a rash of suicides from his followers, federal investigation, and the banishment from several countries. When Hubbard set out to make his mark on the world he was often looking after the monetary gains of his choices, this becomes most evident in the chapter where Mr. Miller chronicles Hubbard's time as a Satanist under the tutelage of one of Alastair Crowley's students. Hubbard left the satanic cult because it was yielding him no money and elected to bring out his master money making plan, invent a religion.
Hubbard did just that and the rest is history, as his mental state declined he became ever more paranoid and violent until his eventual death in 1986. I learned a lot about Scientology and its estranged founder through my reading and believe that I have come away with my answer that I was looking for. It would seem that if anything, LRH was charismatic, and it was that charm that led people to the cult and kept them there, no matter what happened. I would recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in Scientology for its wealth of information on the cults history, and after all, protection begins with education.
geesammy's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.0
Pace was uneven which made it challenging to enjoy but I was fascinated by several stories and ultimately am a bit saddened
shawbear's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty good, wouldn't mind a revised and updated edition.
paperbooklover's review against another edition
2.0
The only biography I can remember reading was Che Guevara and that was cited so much it was like reading a textbook. I know that sounds like a bad thing but that's kind of what I needed and a book that was calling somebody a fraud. I am not defending L Ron Hubbard. I just wish this book was more cited.