Hey all, I've been lurking here awhile, and thought that it
needed more Clinton-related stuff. So here it is.
Book Review: Bill Clinton, My Life
Random House / Knopf, Hardcover, ISBN 0375414576
The web version of this review contains additional text,
including the publisher's press release and book purchase
information.
http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/bill-clinton-my-life.htm
*
My Life by Bill Clinton was published simultaneously in four
editions (hardcover, hardcover large print, and abridged audio
books on tape and CD which are read by the author) on June 22,
2004.
Many critics are saying that Clinton's new book lacks organization
and structure. As I see it, what Mr. Clinton seems to have done is
to end one chapter and begin another for no particular reason
except to prevent the book from being a single chapter of 900
pages. Most of the chapters, numbered and not titled, do not
represent topical demarcation.
In fact, the book is primarily in chronological order, beginning
with William Jefferson Clinton's birth, and ending with the day he
packed his possessions to move out of the White House. The
narrative is sufficiently organized as long as the reader doesn't
look for each chapter to adhere to one story.
The author's chronological approach gives the book the style of a
personal journal or diary, successfully conveying a sense of what
it must be like to be a president. As the narrative proceeds week
by week, all of the subject matter is interwoven, as in real life.
For example, one passage describes NATO's formation of a response
to the Bosnian attack on Sarajevo, followed immediately by the
author's remarks about a dispute with the Republicans in Congress
about the budget, the defection of Saddam Hussein's daughters to
Jordan, and indictments in the Whitewater scandal announced by
special investigator Kenneth Starr. This is the story of a
particular week in Bill Clinton's administration. Readers who wish
to find all discussion of each topic in its own place will be
frustrated, while readers who imagine that they are peering into
Clinton's diary for that week will be delighted.
Similarly, on a different occasion, the president responds to the
attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City, meets with
European leaders to discuss the battle between Russia and the
separatist movement in Chechnya, and returns to his dispute with
those members of Congress who were proposing cuts in health care
and education. This is as close as a reader can get to the
experience of having someone provide a collection of weekly
letters from the former president, each letter describing his
activities and reflections for the week.
Clinton's story of his earlier life, while chronological, doesn't
take this week-by-week form. It is reflective, pointing out the
events and influences which have impressed in him the strongest
memories. He describes, for example, his youthful fanfare about
the music and movies of Elvis Presley around the same time that he
was a musician in the junior high school band.
There are numerous points is the book where the author finds
op****tunities to hit back at Kenneth Starr for never ceasing to be
Mr. and Mrs. Clinton's gadfly. One paragraph describes how Starr
had previously requested records and information regarding
Whitewater, which were then given to him without resistance,
except for the delay involved in sorting through "the disordered
array of papers we brought up from Arkansas." However, Starr's
next move was to use the power of subpoena to force the release of
information. Clinton writes: "Starr's summons was a cheap, sleazy
publicity stunt. We had turned the records over voluntarily as
soon as we found them, and they proved the truth of Hillary's
account. If Starr had more questions, he could have come to the
White House to ask them, as he had done three times before, rather
than make her the first First Lady to appear before a grand jury."
The author continues, "I was more troubled by the attacks on
Hillary than on those directed at me. Because I was helpless to
stop them, all I could do was stand by her, telling the press that
America would be a better place 'if everybody in this country had
the character my wife has.'" Later, the former president adds,
"Those boys certainly seemed to get a big kick out of beating up
on Hillary. My only consolation was the sure knowledge, rooted in
twenty-five years of close observation, that she was a lot tougher
than they would ever be."
Clinton is extremely candid about the problems be brought onto
himself by what he calls his "inappropriate encounter" with Monica
Lewinsky, when she worked at the White House during 1995-1996, and
on one occasion after she transferred to the Pentagon. [This
subject begins on page 773 of the standard hardcover edition.]
Starr offered Linda Tripp immunity from the charge of illegally
taping her conversations with Lewinsky. Clinton concludes that
Starr "was trying to create a firestorm to force me from office."
But world affairs didn't pause for Kenneth Starr's crusade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the White House
on one day, and PLO leader Yassir Arafat arrived the next. "While
all this was going on, I had to keep doing my job."
The author describes the guilt he felt after his wife appeared on
the NBC Today Show. "Hillary said that she didn't believe the
charges against me and that a 'vast right-wing conspiracy' had
been trying to destroy us since the 1992 campaign." Clinton
confesses that "seeing Hillary defend me made me even more ashamed
about what I had done."
"Hillary's difficult interview and my mixed reaction to it clearly
exemplified the bind I had put myself in: As a husband, I had done
something wrong that I needed to apologize and atone for; as
President, I was in a legal and political struggle with forces who
had abused the criminal and civil laws and severely damaged
innocent people in their attempt to destroy my presidency and
cripple my ability to serve."
While admitting certain moral failures, Clinton also writes in his
own defense. He points to the story in Newsweek magazine which
"traced the connections of more than twenty conservative activists
and organizations that had promoted and financed the 'scandals'
Starr was investigating." He also explains why his false testimony
during the Paula Jones case, during which Clinton denied his
intimacy with Lewinsky, did not comprise perjury. Judge Wright
ruled that those remarks were not relevant to the Paula Jones
case. Clinton explains that "perjury requires a false statement
about a 'material' matter."
Clinton admitted to the grand jury "... that 'on certain occasions
in 1996 and once in 1997' I engaged in wrongful conduct that
included inappropriate intimate contact with Monica Lewinsky; that
the conduct, while morally wrong, did not constitute '***ual
relations' as I understood the definition of the term that Judge
Wright accepted at the request of the Jones lawyers." At this
point, the investigator "took me through a long list of questions
dealing with the definition of '***ual relations' that Judge
Wright had imposed." When the investigator complained that Clinton
didn't volunteer information that was not specifically asked for,
"... I reminded him that both my lawyer and I had invited Jones's
attorneys to ask specific follow-up questions, and that they
declined to do so."
Clinton reflects on what the "four-year $40 million investigation
had come down to: parsing the definition of ***."
After four hours of testimony, Clinton wrote and then delivered an
address to the people, during which he confessed that "I was
solely and completely responsible for my personal failure, and
admitted misleading everyone, 'even my wife.' I said I was trying
to protect myself and my family from intrusive questions in a
politically inspired lawsuit that had been dismissed." Clinton
then describes the family vacation at Martha's Vineyard which
immediately followed his testimony and public address: "I spent
the first couple of days alternating between begging for
forgiveness and planning the strikes on al Qaeda. At night Hillary
would go up to bed and I slept on the couch." From the vacation
site, Clinton issued "the final order to proceed, and U.S. Navy
destroyers in the northern Arabian Sea launched cruise missiles at
the targets in Afghanistan, while missiles were fired at the
Sudanese chemical plant from ****ps in the Red Sea." The author
notes: "The American people had to absorb the news of the strike
and my grand jury testimony at the same time."
Mr. and Mrs. Clinton began marriage counseling.
"In the long counseling sessions and our conversations about them
afterward, Hillary and I also got to know each other again, beyond
the work and ideas we shared and the child we adored. I had always
loved her very much, but not always very well. I was grateful that
she was brave enough to participate in the counseling. We were
still each other's best friend, and I hoped we could save our
marriage. Meanwhile, I was still sleeping on a couch, this one in
the small living room that adjoined our bedroom. I slept on that
old couch for two months or more. I got a lot of reading,
thinking, and work done, and the couch was pretty comfortable, but
I hoped I wouldn't be on it forever."
Bill Clinton's My Life is an intimate outpouring. While other book
critics complain that the writing could have more logically
structured and edited, I interpret the stream of consciousness as
the genuineness of Clinton's disclosure. As a reader, you will
feel as though you are sitting on the back ****ch with the former
president and listening to him spill out the contents of his
heart.
Book review by Mike Le****e for crimsonbird.com
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M. Le****e - Email delete the 5 \\\\\
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