November 10, 2008
“I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the past or thinking about myself,” Turner claims, but the media tycoon turns out to have a pretty good memory—except for certain events, like the death of his younger sister, which he admits he’s suppressed completely. After dropping out of college, Turner worked his way up from the bottom of his father’s billboard company, which he inherited when his father committed suicide, and then slowly turned it into an international media empire—an uphill battle he records in entertaining detail (“I don’t think of myself as losing,” he says of the occasional setbacks, drawing on his experiences as a champion sailor. “I’m simply learning how to win”). Turner’s version of events is frequently interrupted by supplementary “Ted Stories” from those closest to him, including his children and business colleagues—even competitors. These commentaries are not always complimentary; in two passages, ex-wife Jane Fonda candidly discusses the psychological blocks she believes keep him from achieving full emotional and spiritual intimacy. There’s little to challenge Turner’s provocative reputation, but his reflections reveal the depth of calculation behind his career as a so-called loose cannon. (Nov. 11)
Correction:
The correct publisher of The Empathy Gap,
reviewed Oct. 27, is Viking.
Starred review from January 26, 2009
Turner's straightforward yet surprisingly charming delivery makes this a must-hear. Famous for his triumphs (defending the America's Cup; creating CNN; marrying Jane Fonda; buying the Atlanta Braves; starting the Goodwill Games; donating $1 billion to the U.N.), it's the telling in his own voice of his life's tragedies (his father's suicide; the protracted, painful death of his beloved only sibling; the failure of three marriages; his ouster from CNN) that is not only riveting, but proves that it's possible to feel sorry for the country's largest landowner. “Ted Stories”—short entries contributed by friends and foes alike and read ably by Nick Sullivan, Richmond Hoxie, Sherman Howard and Maggie-Meg Reed — vary from the comedic (an up-tempo rendition of a Brown classmate's piece, “We Didn't Know Shit”) to being so beautifully written and recited as to bring tears (Fonda's two essays). There's also an audiobook bonus: a conversation between Wolf Blitzer and his former CNN boss. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 10).