Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you are one who often swells with the fantasy of success and vainglory, this is the definite book that will show you a trick or two about how to play the crowd (or constituency) and get rich. Who is Myung-bak Lee? The greatest pretender that swaggered out of the froth of the Sea of Japan to build the presidential conglomerate of the Lee brothers is our man. Pardon my heroics: there hasn't been any of this magnitude in Korea ever since the time of the legendary Kim, Sun-dal. Born in Japan during the Japanese annexation of Korea and--here I repeat myself again--born in Japan while his mother was in Korea, Lee existed in the penumbra of his more successful, or shall I say legitimate, brother. His path to success and wealth is, though, without a single stumbling block ever since the dictator who supposedly had put him in jail for participating in anti-Japanese demonstration (I know it is pushing the limit of credibility--why would he turn on the country of his origin?) had a change of heart to sponsor the "troublemaker" in his job search (this guy's life is just that full of unbelievable miracles). To that envious story of rags to riches add the glamour and fame of a TV soap opera whose handsome hunk, people would whisper, was modeled on you-know-who. That soap opera definitely put a golden halo around his pale oily face. Then there were the massive fountain that he built for Seoulites and a bus transit system and a few others between his mayoral stint and the presidency of Korea. In the mean time, he had inadvertently confessed his involvement in an insider trading scam (what is better known as BBK in Korea) and his family has been dogged with persistent rumors and some legitimate reports of veiled transactions of real estate properties (Korea is a ultra-high-density country, you know, making riches made off the land an ethical soft spot). Even four years into his presidency the clouds of suspicion have not been dissipated no matter what or how much machination MB Lee might engineer. Let's say these are another day's work to figure out. Coming back to the so-called autobiography of the seventeenth president of Korea, this purported true account of the spotless soul (FYI, he is a presbyter of a Korean mega-church) was first published in English, so that MB Lee could build his rapport with the international audience, teaching them how to go "green" (in more than one sense). As you might have guessed, MB Lee's mother tongue is not even Korean, so it is not fair to criticize him for his stilted and awkward Korean sensibility. And I try to give the benefit of doubt to this extraordinary man of international renown--he might feel more expressive in English, who knows? Who is there to say if his Korean is awkward, he cannot write a book? MB Lee might have inspired a ghost writer or two with his spotless soul and indefatigable leadership as in the way the Bible was once written; yet, it just takes too big of a leap in gut conviction to call whatever that was churned out an autobiography. I without any cagey caution can say this though: this will serve as a motivational opportunity, a fantasy narrative of self-glorification if you will, if you are a sucker for that kind of BS.