Mandela Hardcover – November 22, 2013

This book is a fine place to start reading about Mandela if it suits you. Lodge and Sampson's biographies are more disciplined and complete. Farima Meer's is older and outdated (he was in prison at the time) but she may have known him better than any other. Mandela: The Authorized Portrait is a must for its visually stunning layout, perspectives of those who knew Mandela closely and the presentation of Mandela's own letters etc. I would give non of them more than 4 stars simply because everyone seems to have their own sacrosanct perspective of who Nelson Mandela was and is (Meer may be the best at avoiding this). Lodge for instance comes almost entirely from a political science and pragmatic perspective and leaves out and even denies more human and psychological perspectives while others insist on putting Mandela on an impossible pedestal as does this book.The text offered is not the strength of this book in general. There are a few gems written but where this book shines, in my opinion, is the linking of the photos and the text. There are about 170 pages of actual writings about Mandela and pictures. There are many full and even two page photos. On the other hand Long Walk to Freedom is 600 pages of small text in paper back form. The information here will not rival any of the biographies but it is visually stunning as well as easy and quick to read. I doubt the text adds up to more than 90 pages.I love the pictures. Many I had seen nowhere else. Likewise there a few Mandela quotes I had found nowhere else. From my perspective either this book and/or Mandela: The Authorized Portrait should be read by anyone really trying to understand Mandela.Mandela's second autobiography is probably the place to to start unless you don't want to read a 600 page biography with small text and few photos. Mandela: In Celebration of a Great Life is biographical, relatively simple, easy to read and visually stunning. For someone with only a cursory desire to read about Mandela or someone who really desires photos to accompany the text, this book cannot be beat. It is not a book that needs to be read completely to get something out of it. Simply reading the labels with the photos and any text about them is rewarding. If you know little about Mandela this book would be a good way to decide if you want to know more.

Excellent book, great author.

Inspired by this writer's treatment of another book, Robben Island, we bought this book during a visit to South Africa. We had read two other books before traveling to SA, but this book by far stood out. The writer, a journalist, who knows Mandela and has intimate knowledge and experience of many of those in political leadership, draws not only from history but from her own experiences of the man and those around him to create a riveting book filled with the sort of anecdotes you find yourself recounting to friends over the dinner table.While many books about Mandela tend to be fairly dry accounts, this fairly bristles with life and immediacy. It also has a superb collection of photographs. On a second visit to South Africa we bought extra copies of this book as gifts for friends back home and one now uses excerpts from it in a college writing program.

I have both this edition of the book and its newer, and updated edition. The newer edition is by far superior, with update content and photos, and a better look and quality. This PB edition is long out of print, so be sure to get the right one! :-)Mandela: In Celebration of a Great Life