FILE - In this July 28, 2010, file photo Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House State and Foreign Operations subcommittee hearing on the oversight of U.S. civilian assistance for Afghanistan. Holbrooke, a longtime U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, has died. He was 69. (Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

I had only a vague idea of who Richard Holbrooke was when I picked up "Our Man," the biography by George Packer (Alfred A. Knopf, $30) that came out in May. But I was hooked after the first paragraph — maybe after the first sentence. ("Holbrooke? Yes, I knew him.") Holbrooke — brilliant and idealistic early on, difficult and egotistical later — was an American diplomat perhaps best known as the stubborn brain behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan war. He started out in Vietnam, died while trying to solve Afghanistan, and did his best to have his fingers in every international pie in between. Packer's writing is lively and quick, packed with voice and with asides to the reader that only add to his credibility. Read it for the first 150 pages alone — the best primer on Vietnam you'll find.

LAURIE HERTZEL

“Our Man” by George Packer (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Richard Holbrooke (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Don't Miss: 'Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century,' by George Packer

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