The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
One of the bad things about my trying to review a non-fiction book is that I’ll wind up complaining about writing style and pacing, things that are more relevant to fiction (in my opinion). So forgive me if 2 stars seems like a harsh rating for this one. I was just not impressed with Kirpatrick’s book. He tends to repeat himself, and maybe it’s a journalistic tone, or an attempt to get away from a strictly journalistic tone, that makes The Facebook Effect a real yawner.
Kirkpatrick mentions the Mark Zuckerberg wardrobe at least at least half a dozen times, if not more, making sure we’re aware that the irreverent young CEO likes to wear t-shirts and rubber Adidas sandals. The book is simply too long for what it tells us, and I feel it tries too hard to paint a nice human picture of Facebooks’s creator and CEO. And please note that I am not simply decrying a false huminazation of Zuckerberg: Before I read this, I was not aware I was even supposed to be afraid of him (I never watched that that silly David Fincher movie). As apologetics go, this one was a little over the top. Kirpatrick says, at the back of the book, that no one at Facebook had any reading or editing rights to the final draft. That just makes him seem more like a kiss-ass, in my opinion.
You don’t need this much book to say: Zuckerberg had an idea, there was some controversy over ownership of the idea, he worked hard, got lucky, and founded a paradigm shift. In fact, take Zuckerberg out of this book, and it might even be readable. The history of the development of the Facebook vision IS interesting. And Kirkpatrick does an excellent job of describing that. I did learn things about Facebook that I didn’t know before– so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
But I do wish there was an abridged version. One that isn’t so obviously aimed at “telling the other side of the story.” One that isn’t written to show Zuckerberg how well Kirkpatrick “gets it.” I really don’t care if he gets it. I do care that there’s more to Facebook than just Farmville and pokes, so I’ll at least give Kirkpatrick credit for showing me that.