Product Description

The New York Times bestseller, now in paperback: a scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then lost—a global wine empire Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn Siler brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama. A meticulously reported narrative based on more than five hundred hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is a modern classic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #621 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From AudioFile
How did a family business, a billion-dollar enterprise such as the House of Mondavi, find itself open to a hostile takeover? Was it hubris, bad financial management, or a bit of both? Listening to Alan Sklar is always worthwhile, but with a story this fraught with biblical dimensions and Elizabethan complexities, he absolutely enthralls. Even with ambition, sibling rivalry, betrayal, and exile as staples of the story, Sklar doesnt overdramatize. His sensitive narration does more than air the familys wine-spotted linens in public. Thanks to Silers meticulous research, through interviews with all principal family members, court documents, and depositions, and Sklars vibrant performance, the story doesnt deteriorate into a soap opera. Instead it offers fascinating insights into a dysfunctional family and the wine-growing industry in Napa. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
“Call it Greek tragedy or Shakespearean drama, Biblical strife, Freudian acting out, or even soap opera. . . . Compelling.”
—Eric Asimov, The New York Times

“A fascinating chronicle . . . a twisted tale filled with big egos, beautiful backdrops, and charismatic-yet-flawed characters who pull off towering feats and then throw them all away.”
—Business Week

“A first-rate job of creating a balanced view of this epic A merican drama. . . . T he book reads like a novel and her crisp style makes the book compelling regardless of whether the reader has an interest in wine. . . . It’s a great summer read but it also belongs on the reference shelf of any wine library.”
—Seattle Post –Intelligencer

“Explores the Mondavis’ bumpy journey in grand and fascinating detail. . . . Fluid and well-written.”
—James Laube , Wine Spectator

“Epic” —U.S. News & World Report

“A riveting story that is part soap opera, part Shakespearean family drama.”
—NPR’s Day to Day

“Based on exhaustive research and interviews, each page is packed with facts and footnotes which, by dint of superb writing, manage to engage the reader and avoid the data brain-lock that would have plagued a less-talented journalist.”
—Barron’s

About the Author
Julia Flynn Siler writes for The Wall Street Journal from San Francisco. She is a former London-based staff writer for the Journal and BusinessWeek, and has written for The New York Times. She is a graduate of Brown University, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Customer Reviews

Reads like the best fiction - but it's real!
Julia Flynn Siler's The House of Mondavi starts with everything that makes a great story: a wonderfully complex and larger-than-life character, a lush wine-country setting, a conflicted family, and a great undertaking. She brings the story to life with a journalist's eye for the telling detail and a fine fiction writer's sense of plot, pacing, and instinct for the great tragedy that so often results from excesses of pride. The result is a page-turner that leaves the reader not just with the sense of having enjoyed a satisfying story, but also with a deep knowledge of the history of the rise of California's wine industry and a better understanding of human nature. I would recommend this book to anyone.

The Mondavi Story
Intriguing story -- three generations of a famous, semi-dysfunctional winemaking family. The book is easy reading, though it is a little long; but the tale itself carries the day. Recommended.

I loved this book! From a fan of nothing but literary fiction
I just LOVED this book. I wasn't sure I would, simply because I read almost nothing but literary fiction. But it was so readable, and had so many of the things I love about fiction - a great story, interesting characters, good writing, evocative settings - that I couldn't put it down.

There is something so epic about the story of the Mondavi family. As you read, you can't help but think of all the family dynasties that have self-imploded; there are echoes of King Lear, of Oedipus, of all the founders whose basic character flaws are the seeds of the family's undoing. To watch the Mondavi family rise so spectacularly from its' immigrant roots, and then fall from its' own weight, is so timeless, so sad, and so compelling.

One of the book's great strengths is its' perfect blend of journalism and storytelling. The Mondavi story is full of juicy facts - wild parties and love affairs and alcoholism - that a lesser author would milk for profit. Siler, however, treats them with the even-handedness of the journalist she is. At the same time, Siler elevates the book well above the dryness of much non-fiction with her skillful storytelling, and brings to vibrant life so many scenes in the lives of the Mondavi family and the Napa Valley.

Witness, for example, the masterful storytelling of the prologue, set in a wine auction in June 2005. This scene encapsulates a turning point for the Robert Mondavi Corp., the beginning of the end. The aging Robert Mondavi, in his wheelchair and bolero hat, has sold his lot of wine at a fire-sale price, while a boutique wine has just sold for a quarter-million per lot. "Robert and Timothy (Mondavi) stared up at the screen, silent in the midst of the raucous celebration of the bid. They seemed isolated, as the Hoopla Commitee and the television camera moved elsewhere. For that moment the Mondavis were no longer the center of attention. When the spotlight returned in the the months to come, it would blaze mercelessly on the dismemberment of their empire." Wow.

I highly recommend this book. It is readable, interesting, well-written, and a fascinating story. And it's fun to discuss over a glass of wine.