Great concept, poor execution. The main flaw for me was the problem of the author putting himself centre stage rather than letting Chomsky speak for himself. He was rather too eager to express his own opinions –not just about Chomsky, whom he obviously admires – about the issues that Chomsky is concerned with. The book meanders from topic to topic with no clear narrative strategy – or not one that I could fathom anyway. Making Chomsky simple is never going to be an easy task, but this book pretty much failed for me, and I don’t feel much wiser than I did before I started it.

There’s a reason this book has had no reviews until mine. Several reasons, maybe.
This is my third of these Simply biographies and I’m still not in love. I love the concept, sure, succinct bios of important historical figures done by experts, but the execution consistently leaves something to be desired.
Granted, I’m not a huge biography reader, but have read enough to know what works for me and these ones aren’t really it. Maybe because the authors are condensing too much into these slim volumes or maybe because of how they are going about it or (likely) it’s the authors themselves, but these books always come across as lectures and not always the most exciting or engaging ones. And sure, as a dedicated autodidact, mainly I read nonfiction for information and these books are indeed very informative, but as a reader, a person who reads for pleasure, I can’t help but notice the shortcomings here.
This book is done by a preeminent Chomsky scholar, someone who has written about the man decades ago and, presumably, much more expansively, and now came back with this, a reader’s digest version of Chomsky’s life. I don’t know this author, but the tone…the tone of this book is so pretentious and pedantic, it’s difficult to take at times.
It’s also very opinionated, which can be good…if you like the author. When the author writes things…approximate quote…about how much the media circuses put him off even as a child, it’s just screams of a certain type of personality, doesn’t it. It isn’t all like that, there are even humorous attempts here, but overall the presentation is severely biased and skewed.
Prior to reading this book, Chomsky to me was a famous linguist and, since I’m very interested in linguistics, I figured this would be a good book to read. Well, apparently Chomsky is also a very outspoken political pundit with a libertarian/socialist lean and great many opinions of great many things. Well educated, well world traveled and well informed opinions, but nevertheless very, shall we say, divisive. Some more difficult to agree with than others. Some flat out contrary. A proper American patriot, especially the recent breed of the MAGA variety would likely take a huge umbrage reading Chomsky. But then again, I can’t imagine such a person would…or even would be able to define umbrage out of context, for that matter.
Either way, for purely educational purposes I learned a lot. Did I like the things I learned about Chomsky? Not especially, no. But there was some food for thought there. Did I like the writing of this book? Not especially, no, but it was serviceable.
The author has managed to insert so much of his personality into it that it kind of obliterated some of his subject’s, in fact you don’t get to learn a lot about Chomsky as a person at all, just as a thinker and a linguist. Was this an overly fond bio? Oh yes, absolutely. The author loves his Chomsky. Lives that love. Propagandas to that extent, practically.
Should you read this book? Can’t say. Do you like being talked down to by an elderly socialist professor? You do get to learn things, so there’s that, whether that’s enough is a matter of personal preference. Thanks Netgalley.

I studied Chomsky language theory at the university and read about him so I was curious to learn more about him.
This is an informative, well researched and interesting book that made me learn something new.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Chomsky is an extraordinary figure and I really enjoyed reading more about him. Most of the information was already known to me, but there are a few new ones. It was nicely written and it was an enjoyable read, overall.