John O. (buzzby) -
Pretty good, I read the whole thing (an accomplishment since the onset of late-life ADHD). You could tell rather quickly if the new character introduced was going to be a hero or a villain 2 sentences into the mini-biography. It was mostly about China and the FDR era, very manichean view of that era. FDR comes off a little like the current president. There's a lot about the Soong family (TV and the 3 sisters) that propped up the Nationalist Regime. There was more quoting from the ignorant Americans than information on the conditions in China, though. Periodic maps helped.
John O. (buzzby) -
Good book, but rather irritating; he kept referring to people with little nicknames (most of which were used at the time, apparently), like Southern Methodist Chiang, Frankfurter's Hot Dogs, the Washington Warriors, and the First Wise Man. None of them meant to be complimentary.
