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Last Call at the Hotel Imperial by Deborah Cohen finished.

 3.5

John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, James Vincent “Jimmy” Sheean and Dorothy Thompson are at the heart of the book.  All were reporters from America who documented the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Indian nationalism.  Their reports influenced the way Americans came to see the war.  By and large, they were amazingly on target.


The "history" parts of the book were great.  What I didn't enjoy was the detailed investigation of the sex lives (infidelities, deficiencies, visits to analysts) which interrupted the flow of the historical passages.  I think because of all these personal details, Cohen decided to refer to the characters as Jimmy and Dorothy and Agnes and John etc.  The chumminess of the first name usage, along with the detailed discussions of the sex lives, gave the book a People magazine feel.  


All in all, glad I read it for the history--if some Puritan comes along and edits out all the sex life stuff, I'll read it again!


NYT Review is on target:  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/books/review/last-call-at-the-hotel-imperial-deborah-cohen.html

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