Given Andrew's celebrity status, as one of Intel's star CEOs, many readers might come to this book looking for deep insights and life lessons that make for fruitful rags-to-influence story. This book does not deliver on this promise. It is more informative than instructive; more history than personality. It reads like a typical fiction novel, except that it is based on a true story. The book lacks personality. It could have been recorded from the eyes of another kid who went through the same times and hardships as Andrew did and would have read about the same. It also does not speak anything of Andy's path to success and comes to an abrupt end shortly after Andy's arrival in America and change of name.
This book would be a good read for members of Andrew's family, especially the younger generation, to understand their roots and heritage. However, for the casual reader who knows Andrew and Andy Grove and seeks to learn more from his life to deliver on one's own success, there is little content.
Now that we understand what the book really covers, it is worth mentioning that it is a great read (if you can set aside your desire to learn and grow from Andrew grove's life). The story is a delightful experience of what it means to have a strong mother and a wise father as parents. One can also read into how one's future is often reflected during one's growing up years - the diamond shines even through dust. This was evident in prophetic comments by some of Andy's teachers where they could see distant lights of impending greatness.
What I could relate to the most was the flight of a child's fancy. Illustrations of how passion in another can be contagious; how success and progress can really build momentum for a journey, putting it on auto-pilot of sorts. The story also captures beautifully how being a witness to excellence can be a great turn on as great as being subject to unfair treatment can be a turn off. Andy's ride into journalistic fame and his ensuing fallout clearly speak of this. his life story also illustrates how seeming lack of progress can kill enthusiasm even when supplanted with great passion.
A few personality traits that do happen to come across regarding Andy show him to be a person of above average intelligence, persistent and capable of arduous practice in pursuit of things that spoke to his heart, and courageous.
Last but not the least topic of interest and insight touched upon in the book was about inter-religious tolerance, specifically as it relates to the Jews. The book helped me understand the alienation that the Jews were subject to at the hands of non-Jews in their day to day ordinary lives. Even though the society has come a long way since such scars take many generations to heal. It helped me understand why some of the Jews that I did come across in my life remained aloof in our time together or in our seemingly one-sided (from my end) friendship and eventually dropped off from the scene altogether. The book also highlighted how the Jews watched out for each other by pulling their friends and families into their success at educational and other institutions. Such nepotism can be a turn off and may be seen by some as a justification for their antisemitic views. However, that would be a shortsighted way of looking at it. It is the nature of human beings to be helpful to those whom they see in need and we see most clearly the needs of those who are either oppressed or of those whom we dearly love, and both were the case here.
