Sweet Bobby;: A novel

by Joel Kurtzman

A novel written by Joel Kurtzman who is one of the top experts on management and leadership in the world. A thought leader, Kurtzman is also a consultant, speaker and writer. His resume includes stints as editor, reporter, and columnist for The New York Times; editor-in-chief, Harvard Business Review; founder of the magazine Strategy + Business; columnist at Fortune and Chief Executive Magazine. An advisor to the World Economic Forum (Davos), Wharton's SEI Center, on the board of MIT's Sloan Management Review. He is a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, a trustee of Sierra Nevada College, a consultant to Korn/Ferry International and other companies.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Peter Nelson-King · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second novel by the economist Joel Kurtzman draws upon his experience working for state psychiatric institutions, something he couldn't keep up for long because of the poor state of affairs and emotional horror he had to face. To process his emotions, he shows the life of Bobby, a violent criminal deemed mentally unfit and placed in one of these institutions, and the grueling emotional ordeal he goes through. Bobby is no innocent - we see his past offences up close and personal, and while he was largely a witness to the doings of a much more twisted companion, he took part in these crimes, and ultimately the system fails to understand him and he is ground up in the machine. While not as vividly drawn as the reader might like, we understand Bobby's fears and predicament quite well, even considering the nightmare of his past. The balance of institutional responsibilities and failings is depicted carefully and with fine pacing so the reader can see the deficiencies and inevitability of failure the system presents. Through all of this Kurtzman's language has a condensed poetic power, giving ugly material a literary depth and sensitivity that keeps it above the surface of tedious scum, which a lesser writer might have felt tempted to dip into for shock value. A sad, arresting story, a forgotten gem from the Cuckoo's Nest era.