Review: Couldn't bring myself to finish this
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2014
I was excited to read this book because I am a new fan of TR.  I read the reviews, and they convinced me to buy this book.Then I began reading it.  The forward/introduction had me worried.  The writing in this section was inconsistent and rather unorganized.  The author jumped right in with her hypothesis that Theodore Roosevelt had ADD, or ADHD, or at the very least an artistic syndrome that caused him to act the way he did.  She then related his behavior to hers.  I was immediately put off by the writing in this section and had to convince myself to read on.The first chapter was ok.  The author quotes a lot of other biographers and documentation about TR.  The material is better organized than in the forward/introduction.  There are times where the quotes she provides are about a later part of his life, not the current part she is discussing.  Also, I always thought Teddy's illnesses and struggles in his childhood were integral to who he became as an adult, but the author does not really focus on this at all.  I am now becoming skeptical.The second chapter begins to discuss the ADHD/artistic syndrome hypothesis.  The author names a few other people (mostly around Roosevelt's time) who may have also "suffered" from these syndromes.  There was not a lot of factual support for this, and it seemed more like a comparison of traits rather than proof.  This discussion really turned me off to the book.  I told myself I would commit to at least 20% until I gave up.After the death of his mother and wife on the same day, the author tries to show the difficult time TR had with is life and how he engrossed himself in work.  Chapter 3 begins with a quote from TR, then the quote is repeated 2 paragraphs later.  Then there is another quote that is presented that was again not from the time period the author was describing, and I finally gave myself permission to stop reading.  I was only at 16%.I think it was the writing style, the way the material is presented, and the organization of the book that just didn't work for me.  I rarely quit reading books.  This may be the 3rd that I have stopped reading in the past 2 years.  Just couldn't do it.