The Nationalist is a good read, but could have been a better one had the author been a little less in awe of his subject. The boringly adulatory tone of a major part of the book was unnecessary because the story of a remarkable company like Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and its chairman Anil Manibhai Naik does not need rosy adjectives to hold readers’ attentions.
For example, repeated references to Naik’s “beatific smile,” his “intimidating presence but a soft core,” and his “inexhaustible reservoir of energy” and so on make it daunting to move beyond the first few pages. The