There really isn't an exagerration in the book's title. This is a political biography pure and simple. There is little personnel information on Khrushchev or on his family life. Krushchev, as the author paints him, was a more complicated man than the shoe pounding and Cuban Missile crisis botching buffoon he's remembered as in the West.
As an aside, in my time living in Russia I found that Khrushchev is held in somewhat high regard by Russians today [who would back the authors portrait of him as a reformist]. His time as Chairman of the party resulted in relative openness after the oppression of the Stalinist era. Under his direction there was more focus on consumer goods, on housing, a release of political prisoners and more freedom in the arts.
As a result of his iniciatives many of the apartments in Moscow, St Petersburg and other Russian cities date back to this era. It was he who gave the famous anti-Stalin "secret" [but deliberately leaked] speech to the XXth party congress. [It's ironic that while within the Soviet Union a freer climate was allowed to continue for a time within those countries in the Soviet sphere no anti-communist activities were allowed.]
The book functions well as an informative look at the rise of Khruschev through the ranks of the communist party [CPSU]. The purges of the late '30s were his fasttrack to the upper ranks of the CPSU as he took over the positions of the relieved [and usually arrested] former officials.
An fact-filled look at Khrushchev's political life, it promises no more than a political biography and on this it delivers. Those looking for personnel information and a gossipy narrative should look elsewhere. Those looking for political biography and insight to the rise of Nikita should be satisfied.
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