oh my god this book was AWFUL
I love history but the writer chose to write it in the most boring way possible. This is why history gets a bad rep. I mean, there's almost a whole chapter on freaking roads and different ways someone can go from Kansas to California.
It's this weird obsession with some old neighbor of his who is supposed to teach us about "resilience" but the storytelling really falls flat. I am sure Charlie himself lived a great life, and long one too, and it's great, but the author's desire to tell absolutely every single detail of his life makes this book a very boring and unexciting read.
Towards the middle of the book, I stopped caring about Charlie, about the history of the twentieth century, I just wanted it to stop.
Then I realized I will be 100 years old by the time I finish this book, and that time is precious, so I stopped reading it. Charlie would.