Has anyone read Richard Rubin's "The Last of the Doughboys"?

I'm about 1/3 of the way through and I'm really finding Rubin's writing really...not good. I'm still reading because I'm interested in the stories he collected, but wow does he a do a disservice to these testimonies with his writing.

He's really bad at creating a flowing narrative, and it seems like he just gives us bits of an interview at a time before interjecting with his own voice.

A whole chapter was dedicated to music of the time and how it reflected American's view of the war. Interesting? Yes, of course, but it felt really out of place in this book. It came out of nowhere. In the middle of the music discussion, he includes a mini bio of Pershing for whatever reason. He ends the chapter talking about his favorite piece of music. It was just strange for what I was expecting from the book.

The other thing that bother's me is how Rubin contradicts himself with his little anecdotes. During a majority of the book he talks about how precious and appreciative he is to have time with these guys who are over 100 years old and on their way out, yet one of them invites him out to lunch and he denies and tells the guy he will get lunch with him next time. The guy died before next time. Rubin talks about how one of the men he's going to interview has lost his wife and been moved into a nursing facility two weeks before the interview and Rubin felt he was racing death, he literally says this, but then follows up talking about how he stopped for a Bratwurst breakfast on the way to meet this guy.

It's like Rubin has a ton of cool info but is a really bad conversationalist. I might end up skimming most of this book to get to the actual interviews.

Just looking for anyone else who read it and hear what you all thought of the book.