Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Lindbergh

Lindbergh
Lindbergh
Author: A. Scott Berg
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Hardcover
iamjoyous avatar reviewed on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Lindbergh, by A. Scott Berg, is the only "official" biography of Charles Lindbergh. Anne Morrow Lindbergh had hired Berg, prior to her death, giving him access to records involving CAL's history, with the stipulation that the biography not be compiled or written until after AML's death.

I have been intrigued by CAL's life for many years. I read Anne Morrow Lindbergh's memoir, "Send me a Unicorn", and that got me hooked on this fascinating couple. However, after several attempts, I could not bring myself to finish this dry biography of what was a very interesting, and multidimensional life story.

Since reading the first third of this book, I have since learned that it actually misses out on a lot of CAL's life. For instance, he actually had families with two separate German women. Lindbergh's daugher, Reeve, writes about meeting her half-siblings and how it felt to learn of her father's infidelity.

I think, though, what I missed most, compared to the Diary/Letters of "Bring Me a Unicorn", and the following collections, "War Within and Without", "The Flower and the Nettle", is that *Lindbergh* essentially lacks a human voice, the voice of CAL, himself. Berg tries so hard to be dispassionate about his subject, that his writing lacks any passion at all. You could probably get a lot of "hard" data out of this biography. Things like dates, and such. But I didn't find much insight into what made Lindbergh a great, and yes, a puzzle of a man.