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That he gets carried away is part of his appeal, yet his razzmatazz does not charm or convince all listeners. Harvard Sociologist David Riesman finds Iacocca's "showmanship" distasteful. "Somewhere between the excessive caution of most businessmen and the excessive bravado of Iacocca," Riesman says, "there is a position of responsible corporate leadership." A recent article in the New Republic suggests that Iacocca's mythic managerial skills may be seriously overrated. The Wall Street Journal, Iacocca's longtime antagonist, recently called him the "Motor City's most famous motor mouth." On the subject of trade conflicts with the Japanese, he does in fact speak somewhat promiscuously. Says an ex-colleague from Ford, where Iacocca worked for 32 years: "He doesn't know when to shut up."
If he had shut up, he might not have produced his astounding best seller. More than the TV spots or the personal appearances, it is the galloping success of Iacocca that has made him seem something more than just another colorful mogul. Since publication last November, his book has sold more copies than Chrysler has sold cars. "From the first day," says Missie Koche, manager of a Waldenbooks in an Atlanta mall, "it's been a best seller. Everyone seems to like it, not just the business types. There must be something about it that makes it magic." Similarly, at the Harvard Book Store and Cafe in Boston's ultra-yuppified Back Bay, Manager Michael Bills says that "at first, it seemed mostly executive types were buying it. Then it caught on, and you could feel its popularity in the air."
^ Bantam Books, after giving Iacocca a comparatively modest $150,000 advance, "is surprised at the success," says Bantam President Louis Wolfe. "We didn't expect this." After a scheduled first printing of 150,000, low best- seller range, the author raised a ruckus. "I broke my butt for this?" he asked Wolfe.
Iacocca reads like Iacocca talks, more or less. The book was actually stitched together by Writer William Novak (for a flat fee of $45,000) after some 20 tape-recorded sessions with his subject. Most of the syntactical switchbacks and impulsive rhetorical questions have been edited out. Most notably, his abundant profanity was reduced to a tangy minimum, although at least one "f---" stayed in. But the voice is unmistakable. In print, as in person, Iacocca works hard to please: he has produced several different books in one, alternately sentimental and nasty, inspirational and hard-boiled, by turns a conventional autobiography, a gossippy cuss-and-tell expose, an executive primer, a knowing account of Chrysler's renaissance and a sketchy excursion into public policy prescription. Sort of Citizen Lee: What They Don't Teach the Street-Smart One-Minute Salesperson About the Search for Excellence at Harvard Business School.