A review by glennmiller5309
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer

5.0

Does the world need a 600-page book on Richard Holbrooke? Does Holbrooke merit a book of that length? In the capable and entertaining hands of George Packer, yes and yes. The best biographies are as much about a given person as they are about the times in which that person lived. Packer delivers on both counts -- Our Man is well-balanced between a detailed description of American foreign policy over the last 60 years and the tragicomic soap opera that was Richard Holbrooke's life. The book is roughly broken into thirds -- the Vietnam era, the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and Afghanistan. Packer writes like a novelist -- he sprinkles clues and foreshadowings throughout for payoff at a later point in the book. Disappointingly, the one teasing clue he included which had no solution were the multiple references to -- and quotes from -- "a younger woman" with whom Holbrooke had an affair. The reader can only guess at the identity.