Facebook is one of those fascinating companies that young entrepreneurs dream of creating. In "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal," Ben Mezrich, the author of "Bringing Down the House" — the basis for the movie "21" (2008) — attempts to tell the story of how today's most widely used social network was born. Although informative, Mezrich's book uses overly simplified language and contains a bitter undertone, turning a potentially fascinating account into a drab tale of how two dorky Harvard students come up with a good idea.
Mezrich, a Harvard alumnus himself, based the story on "dozens of interviews, hundreds of sources, and thousands of pages of documents," according to the author's note, yet failed to get firsthand face time with Mark Zuckerberg, the genius behind it all. Although "The Accidental Billionaires" is based on a true story, it certainly incorporates several fictional elements like made−up scenes, a recreated dialogue and an unconvincing Zuckerberg. If Mezrich's use of fiction is to make the story of Facebook more interesting, he fails dismally.
The premise of the book is simple enough: Two Harvard University undergraduate students begin a business in a dorm room, and their idea goes viral, quickly getting out of their hands and growing into a multi−billion dollar company. As more people get involved in Facebook, Zuckerberg is cast in an increasingly negative light. Nevertheless, the fact that Zuckerberg is described in the book as a bloodsucking, insensitive and socially awkward boy may very well be a way for the author to vent his frustration with his subject.
This book hovers in a regretful state of limbo between being a fictional thriller and a factual account of Facebook. The author craftily and conveniently navigates between the minds of Zuckerberg's victims — such as the wealthy Winklevoss twins, from whom Zuckerberg supposedly steals the Facebook idea — and his rich Brazilian friend, Eduardo Saverin, who provides much−needed startup capital only to have his role reduced in the growing company.
As Zuckerberg stabs strangers in the front and friends in their backs, he boldly makes his ascent into fame. A key turning point is Zuckerberg's first meeting with Sean Parker, another computer science nerd and one that Zuckerberg admires very much for co−founding file−sharing service Napster. Portrayed as a powerful and savvy scoundrel, Parker is quick to knock Saverin out of his way as he and Zuckerberg greedily make Facebook grow, resembling two villains rather than two intelligent computer nerds−turned−entrepreneurs.
As stated in the author's note, Mezrich conducted interviews with key but bitter participants in Facebook — albeit the ones who didn't make it into the future of the business, such as Saverin. Nevertheless, Mezrich's failure to obtain Zuckerberg's side of the story means that he must rely on limited information.
Mezrich's failure to fully sketch Zuckerberg results in a flat and underdeveloped character, causing uneasiness rather than admiration. Zuckerberg is portrayed as a selfish genius who is cold−hearted almost to the point of a social deficiency.
Fictional as it may be, the story being told is exceptionally interesting and relevant to all users of Facebook. However, the account tends to focus more on the social scene of Harvard and less on the details of the company itself. What we are left with is a mere outline of a successful company and a meticulously detailed account of what it is like to be an undergraduate student at Harvard.
If you are looking for a true glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg, look no further than a recently published New Yorker article, "The Face of Facebook" by Jose Antonio Vargas. Vargas actually manages to get Zuckerberg to sit for an interview and provides a much better depiction of the mogul and of the creation of Facebook than Mezrich does. "The Accidental Billionaires" is nothing more than a story of a genius butchered to pieces by the sore losers of Zuckerberg's — and Facebook's — past.
