So I started reading Greg Grandin’s Kissinger’s Shadow and I already wish I hadn’t. I know this fellow from his book on Latin America and I shouldn’t have expected anything good from him.
There’s nothing ideological in the reason why I’m frustrated with Grandin’s new book. The problem I have is with his writing. It’s so sloppy, careless, and disrespectful of the reader that I keep getting angry.
For instance, Grandin has this obnoxious habit of making a statement and following it with a column and a quote. One, of course, assumes that the quote will support the statement. But it turns out, almost always, that the quote and the statement are not related to each other. Here is an example from page 1:
Nixon suggested that he had invaded Cambodia not just in response to a foreign threat but to domestic disorder: “It is not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight.”
I have no idea whether Nixon suggested that or not but there’s no way for me to find out from this quote. Besides, the quote is weak. I’m guessing there was much stronger stuff in Nixon’s statement but Grandin seems to pluck out whatever sentence he glances upon first because he’s too lazy to look any further.
The author’s disrespect for his readers can also be seen in ridiculous statements like this one:
This book, though, focuses not on Kissinger’s outsized personality but rather on the outsized role he had in creating the world we live in today, which accepts endless war as a matter of course.
I don’t believe Grandin is ignorant and honestly thinks that the concept of war as a natural state of humanity was invented by Kissinger. But he thinks readers are dummies who will unthinkingly swallow whatever swill he pushes in their faces.
It’s not a good sign when a book annoys you so much before page 11.
Clarissa's Blog 
I don’t want to be an outsized fuss about it, but the last quote says nothing about Kissinger as a creator of new concepts, but rather argues that he changed the way policy has been conducted since him.
Anyway, just out of curiosity, how do you react to books that annoy you? I’ve been known to shout angrily, toss them to the side only to pick them back up again, pace and gesticulate, and then grumble for twelve more hours on. Due to events of this sort, I think I’m never louder than when I read.
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Thank you for noticing the post! Grandin says Kissinger had a role in creating the world where constant war is seen as a natural state of affairs. That world existed for millenia before Kissinger was born. If the author left alone the grandiose verbiage of creating worlds and just stuck to US foreign policy, I wouldn’t have a problem. It’s the sloppiness of the writing that bugs me. Kissinger didn’t create anything. He followed a very long-standing tradition.
I am tempted to hurl this book at the wall but I will finish it so that nobody can accuse me of not giving it a chance.
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