‘Real Romney’ gets the gist of Mitt

George Romney, Mitt's headstrong dad, stormed out of the 1964 Republican convention to protest the party's foot-dragging on civil rights.

Gaskell Romney, Mitt's self-made grandfather, built one of the finest homes in Salt Lake City.

PHOTOS: Flip through photos from Romney family history

Miles Romney, Mitt's fiery great-grandfather, became a polygamist, with five wives, on the orders of Mormon leader Brigham Young.

With ancestors like these — each plays a supporting role in The Real Romney — it's not surprising that the book's focus, the Republican presidential frontrunner, is one of the least colorful Romneys.

But what this biography lacks in contemporary drama and bombshells, it makes up for with balanced and rigorous reporting on Mitt Romney's life and career. Veteran Boston Globe journalists Michael Kranish and Scott Helman see him as data-driven and generous, but aloof with a "brittleness to his self-certainty." They document his skills as a "turnaround" specialist, but say he overstates his accomplishments.

He's portrayed as neither the job-cutting corporate raider attacked by his opponents, nor the one-man job machine in Romney's version. His net effect on jobs isn't clear.

His shift to the right on abortion and gay rights after his 2002 election as Massachusetts governor is seen as "a sweeping recalibration that erased any doubt that he had set his sights on a bigger prize."

The authors are especially good on his close relationship with his father, a three-term Michigan governor who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1968, and who died in 1995.

George Rooney was blunt and outspoken, "more idealistic than pragmatic." If he "shot from the hip, his son, before he shoots at all, carefully studies the target, lines up the barrel just right, and might even fire a few practice rounds."

The writing is clear, although the chapter on how Romney made a fortune at Bain Capital may challenge readers who, unlike Romney, didn't study law and business at Harvard.

The question — who's the real Romey? — is left to readers' judgment, but with more context than found in sound-bite-happy campaigns.

As for the now-famous 1983 family trip, with their Irish setter in a carrier atop their car, the book adds that after his sons noticed a brown liquid dripping down the back window, Romney coolly found a hose and washed down the car and dog — his "emotion-free crisis management" at work.