Riordan's book lacks a little something, says review

I haven't yet read former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan's autobiography, but Jim Rainey of the LA Times has. Rainey covered City Hall when Riordan was mayor, and he finds the book, "The Mayor: How I Turned Around Los Angeles After Riots, an Earthquake and the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial," written with Patrick Range McDonald, not up to the task of telling the Riordan story. From Rainey, whose review ran last week:

In his long public life in Los Angeles, including eight years as mayor, few ever accused Richard J. Riordan of being the Great Communicator.

Sincere. Awkward. Generous. Tone deaf. Unbending. Passionate. All of those, yes. But capable of moving people with words — eloquent, funny or incisive words? Riordan seldom faced that accusation, even from his friends.

It comes as a disappointment but not much of a surprise, then, that the autobiography of the city's only Republican mayor in recent memory fails to provide fresh perspective on Riordan or on what the Riordan years really meant….In most of its 247 pages, "The Mayor" is bereft of the sort of telling anecdote, or novel observation, that would offer readers a new intimacy with their subject.

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A lot of what Riordan offers in "The Mayor" doesn't go much beyond what one could glean from a thorough review of the press coverage of the time.

The book has already been out for more than a month. Riordan spoke earlier with NBC 4's Robert Kovacik.

Incidentally, Riordan tweeted this weekend about riding bikes with Times publisher Austin Beutner.

Great ride with @austinbeutner and Bruce Reed. #cycling #california pic.twitter.com/z7GrSRnOxQ

— Richard J Riordan (@RichardJRiordan) November 9, 2014

Screen grab: NBC 4.