The Kindle version of the book becomes available on September 16th. Here's the Amazon link (commission earned). There's an audio version too. But note that you can stream the audio at no extra cost — here — if you have a premium Spotify subscription.
From the NYT article:
The original draft of “The Power Broker” totaled more than a million words, far too long to print as a single volume. Caro and [his editor Robert] Gottlieb had to slash 350,000 words — the rough equivalent of two or three average books.... The fights the two had... were epic, ranging from disputes over punctuation to blow outs over entire chapters that had to be cut....
Caro recalled how, at the end of each day of work, Gottlieb’s office would be littered with pages that had been cut or condensed. A staffer would collect the material. When the book was published, two big boxes containing the sacrificed pages arrived at his home, Caro said. Caro never opened the boxes, which now sit stashed away among his archives at the New-York Historical Society.
“I couldn’t look at the material,” Caro said. “I never will. It was the most painful experience.”
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17 comments:
What about the final volume of the LBJ biography? I've been waiting years for it.
In my experience, maps work better on paper.
Yeah hes become like george rr martin
Bet if you put Robert Moses in command of getting 200K car chargers built in January 2021 there would be 300K as I write this. Pete Buttuvwxyz is no Robert Moses- the closest we can seem to do in today's United States is Elon Musk.
I picked up the book at a second hand bookstore years ago. It patiently awaits me on a shelf. If I were a Robert Moses type, I would have read it years ago...I have the vague sense that Robert Moses accomplished some good and enduring works, but that Caro doesn't give him much credit.....Most people accomplish pretty much nothing during the course of their lives. That's probably a good thing. If wishes were horses, we'd all be dead in a cavalry charge of beggars.....Baron Haussmann remade the medieval city of Paris into the City of Light. During the course of that project some half million Parisians , most of them poor, were forced to move from their homes. Their hard lives were made harder by Baron Haussmann. Now their gone and so are all their grandchildren who had a living memory of their lives, but Paris endures as the City of Light.......People--especially Democrats--are beginning to forget LBJ's legacy of Vietnam and remember him fondly for Medicare. Maybe that ambiguity is beginning to infect Caro and is the cause for the delay.
If the book is has a lot of maps or illustrations, I'll read it on my tablet instead of my Kindle.
Who's reading the audiobook?
Pete Buttigieg?
I have been wanting to read the Power Broker for a while now, but now days I mostly read on my Kindle, I have been putting it off. It's so convenient to keep that in my pocket of laptop bag to read a chapter when I have some down time. Trying to carry around everywhere an almost five pound 1,300-page door stop like this book will give me a workout.
I love that he had to compromise to cut out so much from the book. Then had to compromise to publish a digital edition. I feel his pain and admire his practical reluctance
Caro's hunger for the whole story was admirable. But his vision was pervaded by a fundamentally unfair presentism that pioneered the absurd concept of racist roads. Every close call went against Moses.
I tried to read The Power Broker years ago, but because I had no knowledge of the geography of New York City, or of its important buildings, structures, etc, I found it very tough going. Finally I gave up.
I loved the book when I read it years ago. However, as I have learned more about Robert Moses and reflected on what he accomplished and what the alternatives were,, I have come to realize that Caro's book was a hatchet job. It is quite unfortunate that everything that most people know about Moses comes from reading the Power Broker.
“There's an audio version too. But note that you can stream the audio at no extra cost — here — if you have a premium Spotify subscription.”
That would diminish the listing experience. I’ll wait till it comes out on Edison cylinders.
I had not realized that there was no kindle version. I had just assumed there was. I first read it in the 80s on cassettes from Books-on-Tape. Reread it in paper 20-25 years ago. Prett
I had reread '2 of his lbj bio last year. Reread' 3 last month, currently about halfway through rereading V4.
All on kindle app on my phone.
Terrific books.
Strange he would let power broker be on tape 40 years ago but not on kindle.
I second the Doc. Eagerly awaiting v5 of the lbj bio.
John Henry
Caro is pushing 90 so probably feels mortality creeping up on him. I wonder if he feels that once V5 is done, he has no more purpose in life? Not true, but it may be how he feels.
My understanding is that it is done and has been for 10 years or so. He is constantly editing and rewriting. Procrastinating, one might even say.
In case I was not clear before, I cannot speak favorably enough about the LBJ bio. Terrific!
John Henry
He's kind of famous amongst the typewriter enthusiati as having used a typewriter his whole life. That's one reason he takes a long time, does all his editing on actual paper and then retypes.
David McCullough as well. And a few others.
From the "99% Invisible" podcast ...
In our first official episode of this year’s epic mini-series breaking down The Power Broker, the author himself, Robert Caro, joins to talk about his book, process, and the problematic man himself: Robert Moses.
99 percent invisible.
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