The Book of Rudy

by Jeff Herman and Rudy Boesch

Rudy. You've seen him on TV. You've heard his catch phrases repeated at home, in the office, and even from total strangers sitting next to you on public transportation. You know Rudy is a popular... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580626130
• ISBN13: 9781580626132
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Nice to learn about Rudy - but not nice TO him

Interviewer Jeff Herman asks Rudy Boesch scores and scores of questions, some of them tired and pre-planned, others tying things together. And Rudy answers them all as anyone who's heard him speak would expect him to - straight-forward, based on a long life of experience, with a great deal of simplicity, and without much consistency (especially on topics political and sociological). But Herman's presentation is grandly stilted, presenting himself as more refined than Rudy (as if we couldn't already imagine that he probably was) and "clarifying" Rudy's answers even when they don't need it. It's unlikely, for example, that Herman used "et al." (Latin for others; in the phrase "Washington, Jefferson, et al.", on p.135) in a question, but he prints that in the book, instead of printing the question as he probably asked it ("...and others"). Conversely, when Rudy mentions "The Mole", Herman sees fit (on p.40) to add in "[TV show]" even though the answer is clearly about TV shows, and even though the question includes the phrase "reality shows on TV". Herman's comfortable asking the Vietnam-related question (on p.67) "Did the North have good soldiers?", but apparently needs to clarify Rudy's answer with a bracket: "They [the Vietcong] were worthy opponents." But if "the North" suffices as a reference to the political entity of northern Vietnam, then "They" suffices as a reference to "good soldiers". Herman's editing makes it look like Rudy is ambiguous or insufficient. He isn't. He even gets some basic concepts wrong, such as (on the first page) saying Rudy is "well into his seventh decade". (Rudy's in his seventies, and so well into his *eighth* decade.) Despite Herman's slant and ego, Survivor fanatics will enjoy spending a bit more time with Rudy. You won't be enlightened, and you won't learn much. (You probably already know that he was one of the first SEALs, and there's scant detail about that.) But it was a good quick read I kept in the bathroom and finished in three days over the course of short breaks.

Rudy endures questions and answers on just about everything

I picked up "The Book of Rudy: The Wit and Wisdom of Rudy Boesch" and immediately cringed. Here is a man who achieved a certain notoriety for being the most authentic member of the original "Survivor" show. Yes, there was the beloved curmudgeon aspect to how he was presented, but I thought it was his authenticity, the fact that you took the man at face value because you just were not going to find anything else underneath, that made him appealing. Ask Rudy Boesch what he thinks and you will get what he thinks. Take it or leave it. But when I saw this book I thought it was going to be one of those collections of quotations and aphorisms, which would strip the man down to mere words.However, I was surprised to discover this was ot the case. What we have here is Rudy Boesch answering questions about basically every controversial topic that interviewers Jeff and Deborah Herman could come up with, from abortion to gun control and from Vietnam to George Bush, Jr. Some of the answers are brief, to the point, and probably surprising to anyone expecting standard conservative rhetoric (e.g., Rudy thinks abortion should be up to the woman). Others are more involved, evidencing that the man does not spout off about everything at the drop of the hat. He only talks in detail about things he has thought about it depth.There is obviously some sort of agreement regarding the publication of books that Rudy Boesch signed when he did "Survivor," because the show is never mentioned, just the idea that we have seen Rudy of TV. A chapter on "Survival" is conspicuously barren of anything regarding living on an island in the South China Sea for a month. However, Rudy is here to talk about bigger and better things than some television show. I would have liked to have read more about Rudy's live in the SEALS, but you know the man is not going to talk about that, right? This one is quite simple: if you enjoyed listening to Rudy's abrasive comments on "Survivor," you will find more of the same but with considerably more depth and heart than what we say edited for television.

That's the Rudy I knew....

As a staff member of NavSpecWarGroup back in '73, I ran across Rudy many times while he was at SEAL 2. He is EXACTLY like his book. A good guy and a good example for the young guys of today's SEAL Teams to follow. If young men today want an example to follow, they would be on the mark if they used him instead of a sports figure or movie actor.Steve Waterman, author of JUST A SAILOR