Reviews are pouring in for Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk, and critics largely agree that the book isn’t tough enough on the SpaceX billionaire.
While some praise Isaacson’s use of colorful anecdotes to lift the curtain on the world’s richest man, others believe Musk took control of the narrative and criticize the author for failing to pose the difficult questions.
In 2021, the famous biographer began a two-year journey with the Tesla CEO and owner of Twitter (X), interviewing his friends, family, colleagues and loved ones.
Isaacson begins with Musk’s childhood in South Africa, where Musk was bullied and grew up in a violent environment, but barely mentions apartheid.
“Musk’s childhood seems bad, but Isaacson’s account leaves out a lot about the world Musk grew up in,” writes Jill Lepore for The New Yorker.
A well-known biographer, Isaccson has written about Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein.
Musk recently made headlines when Grimes claimed one of his moms was blocking her and he wasn’t allowing her to see their son.
Isaacson’s Musk biography published September 12
“There are no other people, and there are certainly no black people, the nannies, the cooks, the gardeners, the cleaners and the construction workers who built, for South Africans white people, an imaginary world,” writes Lepore.
“So, for example, we don’t know that in 1976, when Elon was four years old, some twenty thousand black schoolchildren in Soweto staged a protest and that heavily armed police killed up to seven hundred of them. Instead, we are told: “When Elon Musk grew up in South Africa, he experienced pain and learned to survive it. »
Los Angeles Times Columnist Brian Merchant invents the author’s relationship to the subject “The Isaacson Accord”.
“Even worse, in exchange for unprecedented access, the Isaacson Accord requires that many of the most difficult and urgent questions remain ignored and, therefore, unanswered,” Merchant writes.
The Los Angeles Times columnist declares: “This is the book that Musk would have written himself.” And he’s not the only one who shares this feeling.
“The bigger concern is whether Isaacson’s heavy reliance on Musk as a primary source throughout his reporting has kept him too close to his subject.” “Whole sections of the book are told largely through the eyes of Musk and those of his confidants,” says Washington Post writer Will Oremus.
“And the majority of stories about his exploits portray him as a genius protagonist, even as they expose his self-destructive tendencies or capacity for cruelty.”
The Los Angeles Times also criticizes Isaacson for omitting any information about allegations of racial discrimination at Tesla factories and the wrongful termination of an employee fired for involvement in union organizing.
Merchant goes on to point out the irony of how Musk talks about his father and the treatment of his own children.
” Even though the book focuses primarily on the impact of Musk’s abusive father and the traits that might have been passed down, Isaacson moves past any explanation of the argument with Musk’s trans daughter Jenna, allowing Musk to classify him as his political argument. opinions have simply become too radical,” he writes.
Court grants Musk’s daughter legal gender and name change in 2022
Last year, Musk’s 19-year-old child legally changed her gender to female and her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Speaking about his argument with his daughter, Musk partly blames the Los Angeles high school she attended for indoctrinating her with the woke agenda.
Isaacson asks Musk why he is offended by political correctness, and Musk responds by saying that the awakened mind virus must be stopped, otherwise human civilization will never become multi-planetary.
THE New York Times denounces Isaacson’s lack of follow-up to his assertions: “There are a number of curious assertions in this sentence, but it would have been nice if Isaacson had pushed him to answer a fundamental question: what is what does all this mean? ?’
Journalist Kara Swisher summarizes the book this way: “A sad, intelligent son slowly transforms into a mentally abusive father whom he hates, except with rockets, cars and more money. Often true, sometimes false, always a little fool. This could be crazy in a good way, but also in a bad way. Pile of babies. Not Steve Jobs.
