Bezos' wife raps book about husband, in Amazon review

LOS ANGELES - Amazon boss Jeff Bezos' wife gave a book about her husband and his company a paltry one star, in a withering review posed on the online retailer's website.

MacKenzie Bezos gave the lowest one out of five rating for "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon," by Brad Stone, which nonetheless has an average of 4.5 stars since being published in mid-October.

She claimed it contains a series of factual errors, and accused the writer of constantly highlighting "tension" at Amazon while referring dismissively to anyone who had anything good to say about the company.

"I have firsthand knowledge of many of the events... I was there when he wrote the business plan," she wrote, citing a reference to Bezos having read "Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro shortly before he decided to launch Amazon.

"It's not true. Jeff didn't read 'Remains of the Day' until a year after he started Amazon," she said, noting that she and Bezos had been married for 20 years.

Overall the book by Stone, a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek according to his mini-biography on Amazon, was well received on Amazon, with a number of other rave reviews - about two thirds of them giving it the top five star rating.

The New York Times called it "a dynamic portrait of the driven and demanding Mr Bezos," while Walter Isaacson, who wrote the best-selling biography of Apple icon Steve Jobs, said Stone "captures (Bezos') passion and brilliance in this well-reported and compelling narrative."

Mrs Bezos was among only two one-star reviews so far.

"While numerous factual inaccuracies are certainly troubling in a book being promoted to readers as a meticulously researched definitive history, they are not the biggest problem here," she wrote.

"The book is also full of techniques which stretch the boundaries of non-fiction, and the result is a lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon."

She continued: "An author writing about any large organisation will encounter people who recall moments of tension out of tens of thousands of hours of meetings and characterize them in their own way, and including those is legitimate.

"But I would caution readers to take note of the weak rhetorical devices used to make it sound like these quotes reflect daily life at Amazon, or the majority viewpoint about working there."

2,354 of 2,627 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like this book, November 4, 2013

By MacKenzie Bezos

This review is from: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (Hardcover)

In the first chapter, the book sets the stage for Bezos's decision to leave his job and build an Internet bookstore. "At the time Bezos was thinking about what to do next, he had recently finished the novel Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, about a butler who wistfully recalls his personal and professional choices during a career in service in wartime Great Britain. So looking back on life's important junctures was on Bezos's mind when he came up with what he calls 'the regret-minimization framework' to decide the next step to take at this juncture in his career." It's a good beginning, and it weaves in nicely with what's to come. But it's not true. Jeff didn't read Remains of the Day until a year after he started Amazon.

If this were an isolated example, it might not matter, but it's not. Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book. Like two other reviewers here, Jonathan Leblang and Rick Dalzell, I have firsthand knowledge of many of the events. I worked for Jeff at D. E. Shaw, I was there when he wrote the business plan, and I worked with him and many others represented in the converted garage, the basement warehouse closet, the barbecue-scented offices, the Christmas-rush distribution centers, and the door-desk filled conference rooms in the early years of Amazon's history. Jeff and I have been married for 20 years.

While numerous factual inaccuracies are certainly troubling in a book being promoted to readers as a meticulously researched definitive history, they are not the biggest problem here. The book is also full of techniques which stretch the boundaries of non-fiction, and the result is a lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon. An author writing about any large organisation will encounter people who recall moments of tension out of tens of thousands of hours of meetings and characterize them in their own way, and including those is legitimate. But I would caution readers to take note of the weak rhetorical devices used to make it sound like these quotes reflect daily life at Amazon or the majority viewpoint about working there.

For example, when the author does include people whose accounts of a supportive and inspiring culture contradict his thesis, he refers to them dismissively throughout the book as robots. In an archive of the thousands of thank you messages written to Jeff over the years, a small sampling includes "I just wanted to thank you for giving my husband the opportunity to work for your company so many years ago and let you know that he always spoke kindly and enthusiastically of the distribution centre, the people and you." "Having finished my shift I thought I would send you a short email to say thank you. There is a fantastic team based here and we have super support. Our mentors are true Amazon angels providing guidance and showing great patience." "I cried as I read the Career Choice announcement on Amazon today. What Amazon is doing to help its employees is affecting lives in the most meaningful way I can think of. It restores my faith in humanity." It seems like unbalanced reporting to avoid including the point of view of more people like these (and to use narrative tricks to discredit those who are included), given how plentiful they are.

In light of the focus in many of the reviews here and elsewhere on what the book "reveals" about Jeff's motives, I will also point out that the passage about what was on his mind when he decided to start Amazon is far from the only place where the book passes off speculation about his thoughts and intentions as fact. "Bezos felt…" "Bezos believed…." "Bezos wanted…." "Bezos fixated…" "Bezos worried…." "Bezos was frustrated…" "Bezos was consumed…" "In the circuitry of Bezos's brain, something flipped…" When reading phrases like these, which are used in the book routinely, readers should remember that Jeff was never interviewed for this book, and should also take note of how seldom these guesses about his feelings and motives are marked with a footnote indicating there is any other source to substantiate them.

One of the biggest challenges in non-fiction writing is the risk that a truthfully balanced narration of the facts will be boring, and this presents an author with some difficult choices. It may be that another telling of the Amazon story-for example, that people at Amazon have no secret agenda they've been able to keep hidden for 19 years, really do believe in the mission they keep repeating, and are working hard and of their own free will to realise it -would strike readers as less exciting than the version offered here. I sympathize with this challenge. But when an author plans to market a book as non-fiction, he is obliged to find a suspenseful story arc that doesn't rely on mischaracterizing or avoiding important parts of the truth. I am grateful this is the era of the Internet, when characters in non-fiction can step out of books, as Jonathan Leblang and Rick Dalzell have done, and speak for themselves. Ideally, authors are careful to ensure people know whether what they are reading is history or an entertaining fictionalization. Hollywood often uses a more honest label: "a story based on true events." If authors won't admit they've crossed this important line, their characters can do it for them.