I loved many, many parts of this book. It is extremely well-written and thoughtful and interesting to a fault (kept me up late some nights) and I would have given it five stars at the halfway mark. However, it is simply 25 to 30% too long and would have benefited greatly from some judicious editing, particularly toward the end of the book. This is not just a complaint about length -- the political musings become ramblings and then become pedantic meanderings toward the end and all the great philosophical "at last I have found the meaning of life" screeds get tiresome very quickly. Author takes what are really coincidences about the lives of two of his two grandfathers and tries to read too much meaning to them. I would still enthusiastically recommend that you buy and read this book, just start skimming in the back half when he gets too tendentious, and you will enjoy it greatly.