This is a book that's basically for the show business junky and even then it can get to be a bit much. About two-thirds of the way into it, I had to put it aside for awhile. The paranoia, betrayal, double dealing, etc. had happened over and over so many times, with so many people, that I wondered if there was anything more to the story. In some ways, there is. We are given a sometimes convincing portrait of Geffen coming out as a philanthropist, although I came to the conclusion that it's mostly just another persona. King hedges his bets, by reminding us that, as the book ends, Geffen is estranged from his remaining family and various other pivotal people in his life.

One thing that would help make the unrelenting scuzziness of Geffen's business life and the lack of meaningful long-term relationships in his personal life more bearable would have been some perspective. Despite pulling off some major deals, Geffen also took on some very weak clients and found himself with some very bad breaks, like taking on Donna Summer as a client just as she found religion and homophobia. He was an uneven judge of talent and largely out of touch with the popular culture his business helped shape. Even the most vile of studio moguls, like Harry Cohn, could have an acute appreciation and respect for talent. It's also telling that some of his greatest feuds were with people like Jerry Wexler, who understood music, built careers and helped open new doors for different styles of music. Geffen was fortunate to be on the ground floor of trends, in popular culture, but did little to actually shape them. Buried in the details is something else that's interesting--much, if not most, of Geffen's money came from his trading in junk bonds, rather than his show business wheeling and dealing. I came away thinking "yes, he's a talented deal maker", but a good salesman is someone who can believe in their product and maintain long-term business relationships. Geffen, like Jack Welch, is overrated and it will probably take a more analytical volume to make this more clear. Someone also needs to figure out a way to get his long-time secretary to tell her story (right now a settlement precludes that). Knowing how to survive for 20 years with a megalamaniac would be almost as interesting as the further betrayal and double dealing she could add to Geffen's story.

Bottom line, Geffen slept on couches as a kid in Brooklyn, and w/ nothing but intense drive, charisma, and extremeley hard work he built a 4.5 billion dollar fortune from scratch. If you are considering going in the entertainmetn industry, and particualrly starting a record company..... read this book and act like Geffen does to acheive your goals because you will see exactly all that is required of you to build a record company from nothing to 250 million in revenues in under 10 years..... and ultimatly how to build a net worth that puts you in the top 30 of the Forbes 400 ...... read it and take action and if you create 10% of it you'll be in the top 1% of America. Blake---- bldgassets247@yahoo.com

I know I'm not being entirely fair, but I couldn't bring myself to rate this book a "5" even though it is thoroughly researched, and the author, Tom King, who died recently, was a very, very good writer. The reason for the "4" rating in two words: David Geffen. Notwithstanding his many contributions to the recording and film industries in particular, and his and phenomenally generous philanthropy, Mr. Geffen is quite simply a completely unappealing person as depicted in this biography and, undoubtedly to many people, in real life as well. However, thanks in large part to the author's talent I still read every word of Mr. Geffen's fascinating climb to the top of the Hollywood -- and financial -- heap. During the past thirty-five years or so (for better, in the case of spearheading the careers of artists such as Joni Mitchell and other singer/songwriters as well as some exceptional motion pictures and his "liberal" politics; and for worse in the cases of some of those heavy-metal noise machines promulgated by Geffen Records and a few pretty awful motion pictures), Mr. Geffen unquestionably has left his mark on history. Unfortunately, he has been absolutely ruthless in doing so. Mr. Geffen comes across in this book as a selfish and greedy creature for whom (literally) billions of dollars still isn't "enough." Maybe the irony of Mr. Geffen's life (so far), and the subliminal message of this book, is that money truly can't buy happiness. I highly recommend this book but with fair warning: Once you get to the end, you'll probably feel like sticking your finger down your throat. I wish Tom King had had time to have channeled his exceptional journalistic and writing talents towards more appealling subjects for other books.

This book is almost impossible to put down. Geffen's life has been truly extraoridinary and it provides an excellent story. Buy this book if you have any interest in the entertainment industry or business in general.