Enticing...vibrant ... Shapiro dexterously untangles the Gordian knot of their entwined passions, shared ambitions and business bottom lines ... Shapiro’s tone is conversational, luring us into a rich story about American media ... Shapiro captures the thrill of a leap into the unknown.
Scintillating ... In a propulsive narrative peppered with intoxicating background details, Shapiro captures the strong-willed Earhart ... Shapiro’s book is an eye-opening look into the lives of a Jazz Age power couple and their dangerous flirtation with fame. She exposes all sides of their interlocking personalities, virtues and failings. This is an exciting, well-written account that offers new insight into a historical figure many people think they know, but really don’t.
Painstaking details ... Despite Shapiro’s deep dive into this complicated heroine, certain aspects of her psychology remain elusive. And perhaps it’s this very mystery that guarantees Earhart’s enduring allure, despite her many foibles — and her terrible taste in men.
The Aviator And The Showman is, alas, not well-written. And a more attentive editor might have pruned digressions about, for example, Newfoundlanders’ favorite foods, the carved wooden chest George gave Amelia and the couple’s attendance at movie premieres. Most important, Shapiro relies heavily on interviews with acquaintances, friends and family members—often conducted decades after Amelia disappeared—whose claims are difficult or impossible to confirm.
Shapiro argues, both Earhart and Putnam harbored a reckless streak that led them to play down several risks such as the aircraft’s lack of adequate radio equipment.
A substantially less favorable portrait of George Putnam, huckster and Svengali extraordinaire ... Amelia’s feminism, her pacifism, and her progressive politics come through loud and clear in Shapiro’s account, refreshing in contrast to the right-wing proclivities of her fellow iconic flier, Charles Lindbergh ... But along with the important and interesting points Shapiro makes about Amelia Earhart, she includes many digressions of questionable importance, and her writing style is distractingly quirky.
Drawing on archived records, diaries, and interviews with the couple and those who knew them, Shapiro crafts a narrative that is often surprisingly intimate about their thoughts and feelings ... While certainly presenting a new perspective on Earhart, Putnam emerges as a stronger character and someone deserving of his own dedicated biography.
A sympathetic, well-researched biography ... An evenhanded portrait of the iconic aviator ... Capturing the tension and peril of early flying, Shapiro conveys, as well, Earhart’s unflagging ambition and courage.
