[A] peek into the soul that inhabits the iconic bob and sunglasses is what the book promises. On the cover, Wintour smirks from behind her armor, her arms crossed defiantly, as if challenging the reader to pierce the veil. The author, Amy Odell, tries valiantly.

The longtime Vogue editor-in-chief and Condé Nast global editorial director and global chief content officer seems to exist in her own eco-system.

A takedown biography of Wintour would have been easy, and Odell resists the temptation, seeking to paint a more nuanced portrait without any input from Wintour herself.

There are testaments to Wintour’s personal and professional generosity and loyalty, which can sometimes seem to exceed reason.

Odell lifts a couture curtain to reveal the woman behind the famous sunglasses and glossy bob.

Odell interviewed more than 250 industry and personal contacts to assemble the most comprehensive biography of the media icon, although Wintour herself declined to be interviewed for the book. The biography sometimes reads more like a fashion history than a life story.

... while journalist Amy Odell has indeed found several witnesses willing to testify on the record to the existence of this corporeal being, she is, alas, unable to go much further; to explain what motivates Wintour, let alone to reveal what keeps her awake at night (assuming she can tell it’s the night). Her book might well be based on 250 sources and come with notes longer than the concordance to Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. However, full disclosure, it is not – unless, of course, the reader was hitherto unaware that Wintour’s'ability to empathise is debated'.

In Ms. Odell’s workmanlike account, Ms. Wintour is a regimented contrast with her zany antecedents atop fashion magazines.

The life and influence of fashion mogul Anna Wintour gets an engrossing examination in this account.

As Odell acknowledges in her introduction, the frustrating fact is that 'the many people interviewed for this book had a hard time explaining why she is so powerful and what her power amounts to.' This biography could not be any more thorough on the who, what, when, where, and how of Wintour, but without the why, the enigma remains.