Official Review: Name-droppings: Close Encounters with th...

[castor]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Name-droppings: Close Encounters with the Famous and Near-Famous" by Charles Ota Heller.]

---

Share This Review

---

“Name droppings” is the second autobiography book from Charles Ota Heller. Charles Ota Heller is an entrepreneur who founded several companies, management consultant and an author. He is the author of the award-winning “Prague: My Long Journey Home”. An autobiography of his early years in Czechoslovakia during World War II hiding from Nazi’s, how he escaped from the communist regiment and went to America.

“Name droppings” consists of fourteen short “pieces” of Heller’s life in USA (school, college, work) where he narrates how he met some famous and near-famous personas. The personas are: Bill Clinton (and Monica Lewinsky), Michael Dingman, Larry Doby, Clint Eastwood, Andy Enfield, Jay Geils (and Jack Geils), Henry Iba, Don Klosterman, Viktor Kožený, Helen O’Connell, Carroll Rosenbloom, Wernher Von Braun, Earl Weaver, Philip Van Horn Weems, Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

The stories are interesting because you can have a hint for the personality and secret aspects of the famous persons. Besides that, and I think most important, is that you can see life in United States (at least a part of it) from the view of a European immigrant.

The two stories I can distinguish is the one when he met his idol. We all have some persons we admire and want to meet when we are young. The problem is when you finally meet them and have a chance to have a conversation with them; you don’t know what to tell them or you are afraid of their reaction when you tell them that you admired them once. Heller describes the small conversation he had with Larry Doby, his youth hero. The second story is the one where he met Dr. Wernher von Braun, the “Father of Rocket Science” and ex-Nazi. Heller, coming from Czechoslovakia, had suffered from the Nazis. When Dr. Wernher von Braun visited the company he worked for, all the personnel was called to welcome him and most of his colleagues admired him. Heller protested in his way. By not paying attention to what was happening, but also not to try to persuade his colleagues against him.

Overall, the book is very well written, the narrative is very good and I had a nice time reading it. I even find myself eager to finish the story I was reading, in order to go to the next one. For all that I think I will give 4 out of 4 stars.

***
Buy "Name-droppings: Close Encounters with the Famous and Near-Famous" on Amazon
Buy "Name-droppings: Close Encounters with the Famous and Near-Famous" on Barnes and Noble