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SOROS: THe LIFE AND TIMES OF A MESSIANIC BILLIONAIRE
Michael T. Kaufman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. pp. XVIII + 344, $27.50, illustrated
From the very first look, this book holds the promises of a robust volume about a robust subject, and it ends up disappointing only in a small part. It depicts the life and times of George Soros, acknowledged financial genius and philanthropist extraordinaire. If there ever was a modern day model of Horatio Alger, Soros is the one. He fulfills the pattern of "poor boy, plus hard work, equals fulfillment of the American dream." Actually his material achievements are global rather than on the limited American level. In addition, he is a good-looking man.
The book acquaints us with Soros, born as George Schwartz in Budapest on August 12, 1930; the name change came later, forced by political circumstances in anti-Semitic Hungarian circles. His father, Tivadar Soros, is another fabulous character who deserves a biography of his own. He was a lawyer and an Esperanto expert, who actually wrote a book in that artificial language. This book, entitled Masquerade, Dancing around Death in Nazi-Occupied Hungary, in Esperanto in 1955, was republished in English translation in 2001 by Arcade Publishing in New York. As they say in Hungarian, "the apple does not fall far from...