i don't even know how to write this review. this book started as a challenge from my father, and it ended over six months later. i'm not sure that this book is as good as my other five-star reads--the picture of dorian gray and the bluest eye are truly beautiful novels, a fortune for your disaster lives in my mind every single day, and in the dream house and know my name are heartbreaking, poetic memoirs. this book is not any of those things. but it is excellent, ridiculously detailed, and surprisingly captivating. it is the single best biography i have ever read, and perhaps the best book about america i've ever read. this book is a triumph, front to back, and if robert moses is the man who has had the most impact on an american city of any individual in history, robert e caro may be america's best biographer. perhaps it is the annoying pretentious man's answer to give this five stars, but with nearly 100 pages flagged, i feel compelled to do so.