David and Goliath

 

I began this book on November 1st and finished on the 10th.  This 295-page book was an easy read, as far as sentence structure, vocabulary and so forth.  As far as flow goes, I wasn’t feeling it.  Gladwell jumps around from one topic to another, it seems.  I don’t feel the transitions were smooth.  The book is separated into an introduction and three parts.  Each part has three chapters and each chapter is devoted to one person, for the most part.  Gladwell interviewed most of these subjects.  

The introduction ties into the name of the book, telling the story of David and Goliath from the Bible.  As the story goes, two armies faced each other from opposites sides of a valley.  To avoid massive bloodshed and loss of life, each army selected one representative to battle it out in the valley.  One representative was David, the other Goliath.  Goliath was a giant.  Massively tall.  David was a small sheep herder.  What would have been the over under on that match?  David was clearly at a disadvantage, right?  So he gathered his faith and courage.  With no armor, he could run toward his enemy with speed and agility.  He came to the battle knowing that he could not take a "knife to a gun fight."  He did not have the weaponry Goliath had.  He would not have lasted in hand to hand combat.  He had a rock and a sling shot.   David could move quickly and precisely.  Goliath, with his massive size and heavy armor, could not.  Gladwell concludes:  sometimes that which is the source of one's greatest strength can also be the source of one's greatest weakness.  Here is a breakdown of the people Gladwell studied:

Part One - When a disadvantage becomes an advantage (and vice versa)

1.  Vivek Ranadive - had never played basketball, but is now an NBA team owner with a net worth of  $700 million

2.  Teresa DeBrito - a middle school principal who deduced too-small classroom sizes could be just as detrimental to a child’s growth as too-large classrooms sizes.

3.  Caroline Sacks - a brilliant student who did not realize her full potential in the field of science.  

Part Two - When difficulty breeds success

1.  David Boies - suffered from dyslexia, but became a wealthy and successful litigator. 

2.  Emil Freirich - overcame an extremely difficult childhood and developed leukemia treatment plans.  

3.  Wyatt Walker - a Baptist minister who partnered up with Martin Luther King.  He used some mischief and sneakiness to achieve his goals during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. 

Part Three - How far can absolute power really go?

1. Rosemary Lawlor - an Irish Catholic woman forced to leave her home in Northern Ireland because she was not Protestant.  

2.  Wilma Derksen - a Mennonite woman from Canada whose daughter was murdered. 

3.  Andre Trocme - a French pacifist and pastor who protected Jewish refugees during World War II.

As an afterword, Gladwell studies Konrad Keller, who warned we could not win the fight in Vietnam. 

As you can see, there is a wide variety of subjects here.  And within each chapter, Gladwell goes into stories about other unrelated people.  What I liked about this book was it ignited in me an interest in people I knew nothing about, amd I have determined to change that.  Mainly:  Emil Freirich, Rosemary Lawlor, and Andre Trocme.  

My next reading adventure awaits……