Details Books Concering My Life
| Original Title: | My Life |
| ISBN: | 140003003X (ISBN13: 9781400030033) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year (2005), Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album (2005) |
Rendition In Pursuance Of Books My Life
An exhaustive, soul-searching memoir, Bill Clinton's My Life is a refreshingly candid look at the former president as a son, brother, teacher, father, husband, and public figure. Clinton painstakingly outlines the history behind his greatest successes and failures, including his dedication to educational and economic reform, his war against a "vast right-wing operation" determined to destroy him, and the "morally indefensible" acts for which he was nearly impeached. My Life is autobiography as therapy--a personal history written by a man trying to face and banish his private demons.Clinton approaches the story of his youth with gusto, sharing tales of giant watermelons, nine-pound tumors, a charging ram, famous mobsters and jazz musicians, and a BB gun standoff. He offers an equally energetic portrait of American history, pop culture, and the evolving political landscape, covering the historical events that shaped his early years (namely the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and JFK) and the events that shaped his presidency (Waco, Bosnia, Somalia). What makes My Life remarkable as a political memoir is how thoroughly it is infused with Clinton's unassuming, charmingly pithy voice:
I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts, and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can't be judged only by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgments can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only, response to pain.
However, that same voice might tire readers as Clinton applies his penchant for minute details to a distractible laundry list of events, from his youth through the years of his presidency. Not wanting to forget a single detail that might help account for his actions, Clinton overdoes it--do we really need to know the name of his childhood barber? But when Clinton sticks to the meat of his story--recollections about Mother, his abusive stepfather, Hillary, the campaign trail, and Kenneth Starr--the veracity of emotion and Kitchen Confidential-type revelations about "what it is like to be President" make My Life impossible to put down.
To Clinton, "politics is a contact sport," and while he claims that My Life is not intended to make excuses or assign blame, it does portray him as a fighter whose strategy is to "take the first hit, then counterpunch as hard as I could." While My Life is primarily a stroll through Clinton's memories, it is also a scathing rebuke--a retaliation against his detractors, including Kenneth Starr, whose "mindless search for scandal" protected the guilty while "persecuting the innocent" and distracted his Administration from pressing international matters (including strikes on al Qaeda). Counterpunch indeed.
At its core, My Life is a charming and intriguing if flawed book by an equally intriguing and flawed man who had his worst failures and humiliations made public. Ultimately, the man who left office in the shadow of scandal offers an honest and open account of his life, allowing readers to witness his struggle to "drain the most out of every moment" while maintaining the character with which he was raised. It is a remarkably intimate, persuasive look at the boy he was, the President he became, and man he is today. --Daphne Durham
Particularize About Books My Life
| Title | : | My Life |
| Author | : | Bill Clinton |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 969 pages |
| Published | : | May 31st 2005 by Vintage (first published 2004) |
| Categories | : | Biography. Nonfiction. Politics. History. Autobiography. Memoir |
Rating About Books My Life
Ratings: 3.73 From 42083 Users | 1161 ReviewsCritique About Books My Life
So I chewed through this book for over a year. Reading a few chapters, a few hundred pages before reading the last 500 in one fell swoop. First off, I like Bill Clinton. I think he's a smart fellow, who though I disagree w/him on the role of the gov't, is thoughtful and not hidebound in his ideology. Moreover, the Lewinsky scandal will be as remembered a hundred years from now as Grover Cleveland's love child is today. For those of you saying Grover Cleveland had a love child! I say precisely.In his first chapter, Clinton mentions that he once departed from his reading material of choice, fiction, and picked up a sort of self-help book on making goals for the future. As instructed by the book, the college-age Clinton made up a list of short and long term goals, with the top few being to have a family, a successful political career, and to write a great book.If this was his great book, I'm disappointed. It reads like a long-spinning political yarn with Southern-gentility reticence in
There is much that is good about the book. There is much that is annoying. I most enjoyed his descriptions of dealings with foreign leaders. We get the skinny on who was really in favor of what, who was willing to make serious concessions, who was not. Good stuff. The part of the book about his early life was interesting as well, showing family background and how he got the connections that helped him move up. Interesting. I found it annoying that every person he mentions he seems to feel it
Listen to the audio :)I found Hillary's autobiography to be more interesting and informative, but listening to Bill read his own story was heartwarming and inspiring. I love hearing how political powerhouses get there. And no matter what people say, he had new ideas and really accomplished a lot.
A solid 3.5. This is in the top ten list for longest books Ive ever read, but Im glad I did. There is a wealth of information here, and it was relevant to someone of my generation Clinton is the first president I was old enough to vote for who previously knew little about Mr. Clinton or his presidency besides headlines, rumors, and soundbites.I was struck by many things, which Ive mentioned in a longer review on my website, one of which was simply how busy he was. A simple list of all the
At nearly 1000 pages, this book is not for the faint of heart. The beginning is slow, as it seems that Clinton is mentioning every single person that passed through his childhood and adolescence. The book finally gets interesting when Clinton enters politics. As someone who lived through the Clinton years, I enjoyed reading Clinton's perspective on events during that time. His views on the Middle East talks were particularly interesting and enlightening. His insider's view of politics during
Fascinating read. Very happy to be making progressing on my goal of reading biographies of all the presidents in the order in which they served although I shall not reading anything on the current inhabitant of the WH as for myself personally I do not consider him my president.
0 Comments:
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.