Of course, left-wingers or anyone who had basic knowledge of Trotsky's life (gleaned from even a quick skim of "My Life" or the Deutscher series) knows how bad this biography is. There's been plenty of complaints in blogs and the radical press about it. The mainstream press and academia, however, reveled in Service's bullshit, which is why Patenuade's review (available here: http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/ahr.116.3.900) is so refreshing.