This book took the author 26 years, two advances from the publisher, and the need for a co-author, to be published. The original commissioning editor at Knopff died, requiring a replacement. The author's own family were certain he was going to die before it was published. The amount of detailed research is unsurpassed, and really shows in the text. I loved it, more than the movie, which reduced a number of the people involved to caricatures.