Chiasson...writes exhaustively and often beautifully—he is a poet, after all ... Chiasson sets about peeling back the layers on the palimpsest of Mr. Sanders’s life ... Sanders refused to speak to the author but does not seem to have stopped others from spilling their beans to him ... Chiasson has written an admiring, even loving, account of the life of a man he observed from 'a front-row seat.' It’s not a hagiography—the author is too astute for that ... There’s no small amount of pleasure in reading about it.