Perhaps nothing could have lived up to the anticipation for Malcolm Gladwell’s new book but unfortunately “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” (ISBN: 9780316204361) is limp, frivolous, a little silly, and unnecessary. The only saving grace is that it is written with a fluid style so it won’t take you too long to read.
TRANSCRIPT OF ONE-HALF OF A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION:
“Hello, Malcolm? It’s your favorite publisher. How are ya, buddy? What’s the haps? (pause) Dude, what a kidder you are — it’s your publisher! (pause) Right. So listen, Mal — I can call ya Mal, can’t I? (pause) Mr. Gladwell, right. No problem. So anyway, me and the guys over here were kinda wonderin’ how you’re comin’ with the book, the whatayacallit, ‘The David and The Giant’. (pause) Oh, ‘David and Goliath,’ right. Where are we with that?”
(pause)
“Okay, great! That’s cool. So, um, can we get your take on what this thing is all about, ’cause we’re all a little confused over here. I mean, is it a self-help book, or what?”
(pause)
“Of course I’ve read the manuscript! Of course. Thrilling stuff. You bet. It’s just that, well, I don’t know… (pause) No, it’s just that, well, it seems kind of, um, unfocused.”
(pause)
“Whoa, now just take it easy. Unfocused isn’t necessarily bad. I mean, you take some of the stuff in music videos today. That’s unfocused but the kids seem to like it, and hey, maybe some of them will buy a book once in a while. (pause) Okay, so maybe unfocused was maybe the wrong word. Your book is, uh, wild. (pause) Well, y’know, just, uh, I don’t what else to say. It’s wild. Wacky. Unusual. Yeah, that’s it: unusual.”
(pause)
“Well, look, there are some, um, uncomfortable things to say about it.”
(pause)
“Okay. Well, where should I start? Let’s see, I’ve made a couple notes here… Okay, okay, here goes: Combining enlarged pituitary glands and dyslexia and Southern racism and Lawrence of Arabia and classroom sizes and the Impressionists and IKEA and some asshole who runs Goldman Sachs and selecting a college and inverted U-curves and the Nazis bombing London and the Catholic/Protestant war in Ireland and the criminal justice system… well, it’s just… wild. It does all tie together in some way, right?”
(pause)
“Don’t fly off the handle. I’m just asking.”
(pause)
“Uh huh, uh huh… (pause) Right, right… (pause) Well, sure, look: I know you’re a highly respected bestselling author, and you know you’re a highly respected bestselling author, and Little, Brown and Company certainly knows you’re a highly respected bestselling author, but the public won’t care after the first ten thousand copies are out there and people start with the ’emperor’s new clothes’ comments, ya know what I mean?”
(pause)
“Settle down, settle down. There’s probably a way that the guys in marketing can frame this.”
(pause)
“Calm down! Look, the solution is in something you said. What was it now… Oh yeah: you said it’s like looking at information with new eyes. So that’s how we’ll position it. We’ll say that Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘David and Goliath’ is more than a potpourri of data, it’s a stew of, of, of, I don’t know, um, stuff. A whole big pot of stuff for everyone’s new eyes. Or something like that.”
(pause)
“For Christ sake will you get a hold of yourself!? Look, even you gotta know that you sound crazy half the time.”
(pause)
“There’s no need to yell. (pause) No, I love the way you write, the way you just keep things moving without any pauses or anything. Without, you know, actually considering much of anything. And the way you make a point and then bring in something you already mentioned in an earlier chapter, which you didn’t bother to prove back then but which you now try to use to prove your next point. That’s such a cool technique. I love how you do that over and over and over through the whole book. Thank god it’s a short book so that technique really has a good effect, you know?”
(pause)
“Will you stop shouting? Can’t we just talk like two regular people here? Jeeze, authors.”
(pause)
“Well, a lot of it is just a kind of a dilettante approach, you know. Not that that’s bad! But, it’s just… Okay, here’s something for ya to chew on. Remember that section about the guy who was fighting for civil rights in the South many years ago and you write about how he deliberately and repeatedly put himself in harm’s way without taking any precautions or waiting until he at least had some federal authorities nearby and somehow through, I don’t know, a miracle maybe, but somehow he managed to live through it anyway? Well, I’ll tell ya. I mean, look, you’re writing about the one guy who didn’t get horsewhipped, hospitalized, permanently maimed, or lynched and you want to hold him up as an example for the rest of us to follow. Jeeze. I mean, that’s the kind of thing you’re not keeping in the book, right?”
(pause)
“You are?! Holy crap.”
(pause)
“Yeah, well, I don’t know. But okay, okay, sure. No, really, I’ll bet it’s a fascinating piece once you finish the rewrites and sink your teeth into it as only you can! Not sure how it’s all going to play out…”
(pause)
“No rewrites? Really? Man, I don’t know…”
(pause)
“Well, yeah, it probably is going to be okay somehow. (pause) No, no, no, I’m sure it will! I’m sure it will. You bet. But, ahh, well, if you’re not gonna rewrite anything, then, um, well, when do you think we might get a hold of it for, you know, publication?”
(pause)
“Oh we don’t need to buy any more research. Hell, if you’re not doing rewrites you don’t need more research. I’m sure that those undergrads and interns have given you more than enough crap for the Chapter Notes. And instead of bothering with a Bibliography you can just jam those references into the Notes. I mean, sure, it’s confusing that way, but, well, it’s all part of your ‘grab some research here, grab some research there’ approach, right?”
(pause)
“I’m just trying to make sense of what you’re doing. Hell, we all are, at this point.”
(pause)
“Oh no, no, no, no, don’t get me wrong — we’ll definitely put this out. We’ll move a ton of ’em. But just one thing: I want to make sure you understand that things will be different for the book you write after this one. (pause) Well, you’re going to actually have to write something good for that one, right?”
(pause)
“If you keep screaming we’re not gonna get anywhere. I’m just trying to make sure you know that you aren’t going to be able to get away with this shit for two books in a row, okay? (pause) Jeeze, I’m only tryin’ to help you here.”
(pause)
“Yeah, well I’m not too sure about your relationship with your mother, either. Let’s try to keep this civil. (pause) Mal, baby, try seeing it from our point of view. Make a chart. Or a graph. Or a table. You really enjoy those. This situation with this new book, well, it’s like looking at a table of results with, um, whatayacallit, new eyes.”
(pause)
“I’m getting to the point. Here’s what your table would look like: you wrote an interesting book. That’s the first part of the table. And then you wrote another interesting book, and that’s the second part of the table. And so on, right? Okay, and now you’ve got this book. Kind of sticks out as, uh, I don’t know, whatayacallit, an anomaly.”
(pause)
“I think I am being clear. You dished up a limp noodle of a semi-book with the lamest ending in the history of non-fiction writing. It’ll sell, but it’ll harm your reputation unless you come stormin’ back with something great on the next one. No more with the anomalies.”
(pause)
“Well, that’s an anatomical impossibility unless you’re a republican But hey, maybe we can do some damage control with a New York Review of Books ad: we could say something like: ‘The latest and greatest anomaly from Malcolm Gladwell!’ Whataya think? (pause) Hello?”
Book Summary:
“David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell; Little, Brown and Company, Hardbound, 320 pages, ISBN-13: 9780316204361, $29.00.
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/malcolm-gladwell/david-and-goliath/9780316204361/
This original review is Copr. © 2013 by John Scott G and originally published on PublishersNewswire.com – all commercial and reprint rights reserved. No fee or other consideration was paid to the reviewer, this site or its publisher by any third party for this unbiased article. Editorial illustration based on book jacket created by Christopher L. Simmons. Reproduction or republication in whole or in part without express permission is prohibited except under fair use provisions of international copyright law.
