This is how we felt. I purchased this right before a long tedious road trip. Both my husband and I listened for hours. It was engaging, entertaining and educational. Just to know that this was all going on when no one bothered to report on it or blab all over the media. This is where the real story is - after the fact when the job is done. I have always said it is better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission - Charlie Wilson is one of these guys with the same rule!

I don't know. Maybe these things won't bother other people, but it seemed as if there were a lot of either typos in the text or misreadings by the reader. Describing the "hollowed halls" of Yale, talking about "flaunting the rules," telling of an antique car so old it had more than "three thousand miles on it." And so on and on and on. These things just jolted me every time I heard them. The ms should have been proof-read, or the reader needs to be more careful. I've "read" probably a thousand books on tape, cd, and as downloads, and I've never encountered anything like this. Great story, tho.

A great story that is superbly written and delivered. I am humbled and inspired.

This is a great story about the politics and money behind American funding for the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets

What Charlie Wilson, the CIA and various others did was pretty extraordinary, but the telling is anything but. Mr. Crile’s choice to delve into the background of every character as a way of explaining the motivation for playing a part in the Afghan resistance is distracting. I also found it confusing the way Mr. Crile, attempting to tell the story chronologically, also bounces back and forth in time, again attempting to unveil all the significance of each event, choice, meeting, etc. Rather than rewind constantly to figure out where I was in time and where the timeline had diverged, I decided to let go of the details and try to keep track of the bigger picture. Mr. Crile fails in one other important point - at the end of the second section (of three) I found it difficult to find a compelling reason to keep listening. We already know the ending, but unlike Mr. Eichenwald’s excellent "Conspiracy of Fools," there is no suspense or intrigue here. There are colorful characters who overcome many obstacles; there are colorful stories with humorous or interesting outcomes; but those ingredients don’t complete the recipe of a good story.

Read about how the CIA and congress really works.

I thought the story started out very well, but having a hard staying focused on the enormous amount of detail being presented in the second half of the book.
Is this really the last battle of the cold war or are we in it now? I wonder what government is behind killing Americans. I'll be willing to bet, that every dollar they spend, costs the US at least $100.

Really makes you wonder.....

As one reads this book the line between fiction and reality gradually fades and eventually becomes invisible. It is always the individual in history who steps forward to save us from ourselves and the bureaucracy that is ever present and ever willing to profit from our collective self destructive isolationism and tolerance of liberal fascism. as we look forward to the coming election let us pray for another FDR or Charlie Wilson as the threat of Islamic extremism becomes increasingly unavoidable. I, for one, am finding hope in short supply as I contemplate a nation under the disingenuous influence of Mr. Obama.

I couldn't get into it. Maybe the movie is b etter but the book is not for me

Kept my attention until the third part, but then could no longer take the repeated and unnecessary use of "the n word." I was offended by this book.