The Man Without a Face

A personal look at how Putin has shaped Russia to be what it is today. I don't know much about Russia's history so I thought it was interesting.

Rating: 3.75 stars

I love Jaime who recommended me this book from the Tailored Book Recommendations; she understood that I wanted to read more non-fiction books about global politics. I've been following Russian politics for quite some time due to watching Russian sports like gymnastics and figure skating plus listening to Russian classical composers, such as Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

I wondered for the longest time how Vladmir Putin was able to rise up through the ranks of the Russian government. It was interesting to hear that the previous Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, was not looking as a solid leader to the general Russian public after the fall of the USSR, and Russia needed a new president. Lord and behold, Vladmir Putin, a KGB spy who managed to become Russia's next president since 1999.

The book was more captivating in the beginning but then became slightly flat towards the middle. I wish that the excitement and passion in the book was maintained strongly throughout. Otherwise, interesting topic and well-written biography.

The story of Putin's rise from unknown (perhaps even of unknown parentage) youth in St. Petersburg to leader of Russia includes a diverse cast of characters and quite a bit of luck (both bad and good). I did not have many of the cultural references that would be expected for a well-prepared reader - especially with regard to Russian holidays, politicians, and daily life. The author attempts to explain these without dwelling, but I still needed to look things up. That being said, I could still get the gist of the story (and the many smaller stories within).

Overall, the stories paint a picture of a selfish and spiteful man that manages to put on a mask to the outside world while crushing his countrymen. The book does not claim to be objective, and Masha certainly has personal reasons to not like Putin, the book includes hundreds of footnotes and references to published documents, videos, and books in Russian and English. The book has at times terrified and fascinated me, as I am now inspired to learn more about these events. I'm especially interested to read the book of Putin's former boss in St. Petersburg, Sobchak (A Dozen Knives at my Back) and that of Alan Goldfarb writing about Alexander Litvinenko (Death of a Dissident).

I could recommend this to anyone interested in history or modern civics.

Part of the book gave me what I wanted, the rest however was a giant disappointment and a paranoid waste of time.

While the perceived horrors of this tale go almost saying, I was disappointed in the overall delivery.

This book was pitched as the unlikely RISE of Vladimir Putin. What we ended up with was a series of essays and journalistic reports chronicling a period of time featuring myriad suspenseful coincidences which may or may not be directly linked to the rise of the Russian president.

I don't mean to undervalue the despair of the Russian people. I don't want to take away from the very real brutality of the regime. And I don't deny the rampant corruption in Putin's Russia. However, this is not the book I asked for, and was promised, by title and description.

While it's well enough written, it's nothing especially newsworthy. If you somehow thought Putin was an interesting or fair person, you needed to read this book. If you thought he was a thug, then you didn't need a whole book to reaffirm what you thought.

This got so incredibly good at the end when it became a personal story. The rest of the time I felt like there was a much more complete book to be written by someone else. Probably only after Putin dies and records possibly become more available.