There is point in everybody's life where a tough decsion will have to be made; a hard call. For inspiration and direction, we can look to the remarkable individuals in John McCain and Mark Salter's book, which dramatically describes the anatomy of a great decision:
-Branch Rickey's decision to offer Jackie Robinson a contract to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the face of public opposition.
-Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's decision to return to Liberia after receiving an economics degree from Harvard University to face the nightmare of a civil war, imprisonment, and the challenge of leadership.
-General Fred Weyand's decision to redeploy fifteen of his battalions despite resistance from senior American military commanders in Vietnam.
Woven into these stories are McCain's own views on the process and art of decision-making, and stories about hard calls he's faced, and the ones we might all have to face in the future. HARD CALL is an inspiring testament to grace under pressure by one of America's most admired political leaders.
With his political intentions so well known, it can be difficult to discern if this is a simple attempt to examine "hard calls" in history or merely McCain's way of demonstrating his knowledge of such events. Of course, the implication is that he, too, knows how to identify such situations and make the right choices. Daniel Kelly uses emphasis and a deliberate pace to good effect as the author discusses events such as the CHALLENGER explosion, the invention of the telephone, and the decisions that led to Jackie Robinson's crossing the color line. McCain's narrations are delivered in a more oratory fashion that resembles speeches or lectures more than actual narration. Much like a campaign speech, the bonus "conversation" sounds a bit rehearsed. L.E. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
