A review by dmaurath
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela

4.0

At the end of the audiobook is an interview with an editor for book and he mentions how it’s as much a biography of South Africa as it is a biography of Nelson Mandela. That is too true. The major flaw of the book is that it’s simply a telling of events as they happened in order with little time spent on how those events felt for Nelson. There is little introspection by Nelson Mandela the man and he seems to be at times only a shallowly defined character instead of the central subject of the book. For example, when relating his divorce, instead of discussing his feelings, he quotes a letter he wrote at the time that reads like an opening statement in a legal trial where he must defend his decision to divorce. Mandela does admit in the book that he is not one to share his feelings and perhaps lacks the ability to intellectualize his feelings, a possible advantage for someone who could have been easily overwhelmed many times throughout his life. Yet I am still curious.