A review by scottjeffe
The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen

4.0

Gessen is an excellent writer - and a great storyteller (I listened, rather read this book). It is part personal story in the age of Putin and part documentation of this horrid man’s rise to to lead Russia. In a way what it shows is how an idiot can rise to lead an idiot nation. Having read hundreds of books on Russian history, I am comfortable saying that this is a country that at every fork in the road for 1000 years has made the wrong decision. Some would say that the US has also done this, but the difference is, as Churchill was supposed to have said “America always makes the correct decision….after trying every possible alternative..”