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).