Good Spirits : The Making of a Businessman

The chairman of The Seagram Company and the president of the World Jewish Congress recounts his upbringing within the family business and distills the lessons he has learned about recognizing opportunities, delegating responsibility, and achieving balance in life. 15,000 first printing.

A sequel of sorts to The Making of a Jew (1996). Between the making of deals, flying around on jets, and the eating of good brisket sandwichesall chronicled hereit's hard to tell when Bronfman had the time to write this odd but rather appealing book, part memoir and part savvy digest of big-business deal-making. The narrative offers a series of glimpses of Bronfman's business dealings at Seagram's, of which he is now the chairman, interspersed with glimpses of childhood events that Bronfman believes have helped shape his outlook and appetites. His family settled in Montreal and lived lavishly in an enormous home. But Bronfman remembers chiefly a lot of heavy furniture and dark rooms, and notes in passing that he rarely returns there. His job training, to his mind, began on the day of his birth. As the first son, he was automatically in line to take over the company and was expected to begin, at an early age, to master the business from the gorund up. His two older sisters were expected to stay out of his way. His oldest sister died still angry about being cut out of the business, but Bronfman notes that he has made peace with the rest of his family, including his mother, from whom he had been slightly estranged since childhood. Bronfman discusses his family and business life with great honesty and gives a short and harrowing account of the kidnapping of his son Sam in 1975. Bronfman's interests, like his company, are far-reaching, and he manages to pack in detailed discussions of such things as Du Pont stock options, Swiss gold, and the comforts of home in the short span of this book. President of the World Jewish Congress, he closes with an impassioned plea against anti-Semitism. While this is utterly harmless stuff, the book is likely to be of interest to only a small circle of readers. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

With worth estimated at $3 billion, Bronfman is one of the richest men in the U.S. He took over American operations of Seagram & Sons when his father died in 1971, but has since passed on control to his son Edgar. The history of Seagram's and the Bronfman family was well chronicled by Peter Newman in King of the Castle: Seagram's and the Bronfman Empire (1979), but Bronfman's own genial account offers a highly personal look at both the company and his family. He discusses growing up as the son of a major and sometimes controversial business figure; he covers his early years at Seagram's as a clerk and the problems he faced when he took over the company; and a whole chapter illuminates Seagram's decision to buy a 20 percent stake in DuPont in 1981. Bronfman is of current interest because of his efforts to get Swiss banks to release monies belonging to survivors of the Holocaust and the families of its victims. David Rouse

Seagram, Dupont, MGM, MCA, Universal, Chivas Regal, Mumm, Glenlivet, Martell, and Sandeman?a veritable who's who of company and brand names all bearing the Seagram imprimatur with its corporate motto of Integrity, Craftsmanship, Tradition. This well-written, unvarnished book looks at the other side, the human side, which describes how the author was able to overcome a privileged but dysfunctional family life to oversee the transition of Seagram from a family-owned, strongman founder-dominated business to a multinational corporation. Of greatest value here are the last chapter and epilog, in which Bronfman provides practical advice for anyone in business or life in general, eloquently describes his efforts with the World Jewish Restitution Organization to "get Swiss banks to give the relatives of [Holocaust] survivors what is rightfully theirs," and details Seagram's recent expansion into the Chinese market. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries looking to add substance to their business collections.?Norman B. Hutcherson, Beale Memorial Lib., Bakersfield, Cal.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.