Jeff Bezos' Wife MacKenzie Pans New Book About Him With 1-Star Diss
MacKenzie Bezos found "way too many inaccuracies" in "The Everything Store."
Nov. 5, 2013 — -- There are millions of book reviews on Amazon.com but only one is written by the wife of the CEO of Amazon herself, in which she pans a recent book about her husband, Jeff Bezos.
MacKenzie Bezos, who, according to the Amazon post, married Jeff Bezos 20 years ago, has given the recently released book "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon" a measly one star (out of five) on the site. The review can be read here.
"Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book," MacKenzie Bezos writes in the posting. "Like two other reviewers here, Jonathan Leblang and Rick Dalzell, I have firsthand knowledge of many of the events."
The book by Brad Stone, a seasoned technology journalist who works now at Bloomberg Businessweek and formerly at The New York Times, was released last week and contains juicy tidbits about what's described as Bezo's rather curt and abrasive business style.
ABC News is only a few pages into the book, but there's one lengthy passage where Stone's sources told him that Bezos could be pointedly rude in meetings. "Are you lazy or just incompetent?" Bezos is said to have said to a colleague.
MORE: Bezos and Dorsey -- Two of Techs Most Powerful Slammed in New Book Excerpts
Stone interviewed hundreds of people for the book and spoke to many Amazon executives with the approval of Jeff Bezos. But Bezos declined to be interviewed for the book. Stone today said he stood by his reporting.
"Mrs. Bezos also suggests that there are a handful of factual errors in my account. As a journalist with a two-decade record of accuracy, that troubles me a great deal more, I spoke to more than 300 people for my book, among them current and former Amazon employees, rivals, partners and customers," Stone wrote in an article posted on Bloomberg Businessweek's website.
But Stone says, "there are details of this story that only Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos can know. If they point to errors, I'll gladly correct them."
MORE: Jeff Bezos -- a Down-to-Earth CEO Reaching for the Stars
Other Amazon executives also maintain that parts of the book are inaccurate and also point out that it didn't capture some other sides of Bezos.
"While I found it rather interesting, lots of stories are missing or just inaccurate," Rick Dalzell, a former senior vice president at Amazon, wrote in his review. "Brad painted a one-dimensional picture of Jeff as a ruthless capitalist. He completely missed his warmth, his humor and his empathy -- all qualities abundantly present in the man."
Amazon's public relations department has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.
Still, MacKenzie's one-star review on Amazon.com remains the outlier. The book has an overall 4.5 rating and is the number No. 1 in the "Business Management & Leadership" section of the site.
