Shocking, frightening, and totally surreal. One of the strangest chapters of the 20th century I'm aware of.

I'm not enough of a scholar to give Short's exhaustive research it's due, but I found his broader effort to understand what makes a culture countenance the tragic insanity of the Khmer Rouge interesting and engaging.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who doesn't have a special interest in Southeast Asian history or the history of Communism as a movement. Within the boundaries it sets out for itself, however, the book is a success.

Short's biography of Pol Pot and the rise/fall of the Khmer Rouge is certainly as comprehensive as able (sadly deficient only on a deeper picture of the dictator himself), but not particularly riveting. The first 200 pages is entirely set-up, boringly disjointedly so, with a confusing array of people interchangably called by multiple names and theories of communism that were often incomprehensible even to a former political science student. You can see how the conclusions come together if you can power through the beginning, but Short could've benefited from a stricter editor and possibly a different title more relevant to the all-encompassing story.

Impeccably researched and notated. Lots of documentation on the political gyrations involved in the Vietnam war. Does not address all of the atrocities that went on in any great detail (excepting a couple of photos) for which I was thankful.

Really intense.

More of a history of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rogue movement than a biography of Pol Pot, but still very interesting.

Short's history/biography combines an engaging narrative flow with a good amount of detail. I am still not sure I understand how Pol Pot evolved from the mediocre student, Saloth Sar, and budding Marxist into the leader of a (briefly) successful revolutionary movement. Short does mention his later charisma, but if he possessed such an appeal in his early days, the book did not really show it. It did, however, do a brilliant job of showing how Cambodian culture, psyche and worldview were more important in explaining what happened as the Khmers Rouges took power than was Marxism. Pol was certainly influenced by revolutionary writings of the past (especially the more radical and violent stuff) but readily ignored, revised or rejected that which did not serve his ends. I also found the geopolitical aspects of the conflict fascinating. Cambodia found itself between two very different cultures, Sino-influenced Vietnam and Indo-influenced Thailand. Outside powers took sides based on broader strategic aims and ended up being drawn into the conflict in unexpected ways.

I read this on a Kindle, which was not ideal. There are a lot of people to keep track of, many of whom change their names a few times, so it was a bit of a pain using the glossary of names in the back of the book. Maps were not very clear (though they are probably better on the Kindle 2 and DX).

Got to 23% and decided to give up. I just couldn't keep track of what was going on. Too many names. My brain is too little. Meh.

This book claims to be a biography of Pol Pot, but because of the secretiveness of the Cambodian communist régime thee, it could better be described as a history of Cambodia told through the eyes of Pol Pot and his régime.

There are days when I wonder why I read books like this. When I read biographies, I like to read about people I respect, admire, aspire to be like, or achieved something. This book doesn't really cover any of these things, and when I read it, I found myself becoming ever more confused as to how anyone could be like this.

That is the biggest problem with the book I think. The author explains that the acts they undertook could be explained by coupling Pot's understanding of what was going on in the country with the society he lived in (Cambodia has a very regimented society where you don't argue with those in charge -it's disrespectful). I can see where he's coming from, but found that a little too pat a piece of thinking to be believeable though, if I'm honest.

The other problem I had with the book is that it dragged. Short focused on getting all the facts in, rather than making the book flow. I know that this is a biography and you want to show the research you put in, but I think the author forgot that he was telling a story first and the facts need to slip seamlessly into that story. That didn't happen in this book, and it infuriated me because of this.