I managed to finish ‘Working’ by Robert A. Caro.
Robert A. Caro is a multiple-Pulitzer award winning biographer of prominent personalities such as Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th US President, and polarizing but influential American Public Official Robert Moses. I came to know about this book on Twitter. I don’t know exactly who it was who suggested this book (may be Vivek Kaul) on his timeline, but I am happy that I paid for the kindle version of this highly readable book. I am a slow reader. But, I am happy to share that I managed to finish this book. I read books slowly and the fault is mostly mine and is by no way caused by the quality of the book.
I found the writing style of this book quite simple. There is no attempt to present the art of writing as rarefied knowledge which can only be mastered by very few people. In fact, the writer in this Book, aptly named Working, goes at great length to describe his writing process as long drawn and involving inordinate time spent in the library gathering the material.
The author in the very beginning of the book shares the advice he had been given by someone: “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page.” Caro states in the book that this is one advice he never forgot and it got engraved in his mind. Much of the writing is lot of taking notes, and going through multiple re-writes. There is no short-cut.
Most of the book is about how he wrote books on two prominent personalities who had a deep impact in their respective fields–Lyndon B Johnson and Robert Moses.
The book about Robert Moses was very difficult to write for Robert Caro as it was his first book and he writes a descriptive account of how he struggled financially along with his wife to see the book through. He also did not receive co-operation from the subject of the book who was a controversial figure in New York and is responsible for the infrastructure of the city that connected different islands comprising the city with flyovers and public highways.
After finishing The Power Broker, Robert A. Caro started writing series of books about Lyndon B. Johnson. Thus far, four volumes have been published and have been very well received and the final volume is yet to be published. Robert A. Caro had to relocate for a while to Washington DC and Texas in order to research about the subject.
The book is nicely written and the humility of the author is quite apparent. The book ends with a Paris Review interview which is quite enjoyable to read.
