Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
thk avatar reviewed on + 47 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6


I was fascinated by this book, and am still not sure how I feel about it.

Martin's dreams and the businesses he builds from them are so much more real to him than the people that make them possible. On the other hand, he is a consummate discoverer and manager of people who can make his dreams come true--the ones he chooses to make his businesses a success. However, he only seems to listen to a few people and allow them into his life. All the others he relates to only as employer, order-giver, customer -- and a few other narrowly limited relationships. He controls every minute detail of his businesses. Paradoxically his personal life just seems to "happen" to him, as a drifting or dream-state, in which he takes no initiative.

The descriptive details are marvelous, helping me see, hear, feel, smell, and almost touch this bursting-through period in our history.