Short description
With fresh insights and a penetrating eye, a "New York Times" reporter examines a century of Coca-Cola history through deft portraits of the charismatic, driven men who used luck, spin, and the open door of enterprise to turn a beverage with no nutritional value into a remedy, a refreshment, and an international object of consumer desire.
Review
Tells the 130-year history of Coca-Cola with flair and gusto.... T he Real Thing is also a primer on the perils that come with decades of seemingly limitless growth.
-The Washington Post Book World
[A] gripping account . . . [Hays] has a novelist's flair for conveying her characters' thoughts. . . . She recounts Coca-Cola history and lore in fascinating detail.
-The New York Times
Fascinating and revealing . . . This extremely well researched, surprisingly entertaining saga is told almost like a novel with a broad panorama and [a] memorable cast.
- The Miami Herald
Totally engaging . . . highly enjoyable . . . a compelling, well-documented history of the drink that has refreshed the world for 118 years.
-The Philadelphia Inquirer
Before the Golden Arches, red-and-white Coca-Cola signs were the most ubiquitous symbols of American consumerism on the planet. Constance Hays tells the story of how Coke got its ?zz--and then almost lost it--in sparkling prose that's both sweet and tart, just like the pop.
--Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind
The Real Thing brings the story of one of America's oldest commercial and cultural icons up to date--a tale of power, ego, and money inside one of the world's largest companies. With a journalist's investigative skills and a strong narrative voice, Constance Hays puts the reader inside the minds of Coca-Cola's top executives and fanatic consumers, showing how the modern, ever-changing global business world works through the simplest of products. Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, taking you through incredible triumphs and massive blunders, The Real Thing is a fascinatingread.
--Joel Glenn Brenner, author of The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey & Mars
[Hays] ably makes the point that there's no comparison for the emotional connection that people in America and around the world have with a Coke....She also recounts with a proper sense of tragedy the sad blunders of the last few years that have practically unmade the company....Gripping material, dramatically told.
-- Kirkus Reviews