After Life in White House, No Place Feels Like HomeBy Janet Maslin writing in The New York Times, April 28, 2008
Biographical reporting has as much to do with selection and emphasis as it does with the unearthing of raw data. So the way that Carol Felsenthal, in her book about Bill Clinton’s post-presidential life, describes a 2006 newspaper editors’ convention is revealing. This was an event at which the former president spoke pro bono, was warmly received and delighted listeners by ignoring his handlers’ advice that he keep the appearance brief.
CLINTON IN EXILE
A President Out of the White House
By Carol Felsenthal
Illustrated. 386 pp. William Morrow. $25.95.
A President Out of the White House
By Carol Felsenthal
Illustrated. 386 pp. William Morrow. $25.95.
But to Ms. Felsenthal none of these details is the point of the anecdote. What she insists on using as a punch line is this: “The one jarring note was the toilet paper stuck to his shoe.”
“Clinton in Exile” didn’t need that. It already has ample occasions for gossip and malice, above and beyond the biographer’s legitimate concerns. Packaged with a particularly hangdog picture of the ex-president on its cover, this book explores loaded subjects like Mr. Clinton’s last-minute pardons, imperiled legacy, flashy new billionaire friends and business connections. It’s a book with chapter headings like “It’s Monica, Stupid!” and “Philanderer in Chief.”
Given the relative dearth of book-length reporting on Mr. Clinton’s suburban years, Ms. Felsenthal does have a worthwhile opportunity. A postpresidency is of great historical interest, none more so than that of Theodore Roosevelt, whose struggle with life out of the limelight was part of Ms. Felsenthal’s inspiration for “Clinton in Exile.” And while no two postpresidencies are alike, she presents Mr. Clinton’s as more like Roosevelt’s than that of Jimmy Carter. “Bill Clinton found the prospect of looking to Jimmy Carter totally unattractive,” she writes. Mr. Clinton, she says, envies Mr. Carter his Nobel Peace Prize.
“Clinton in Exile” didn’t need that. It already has ample occasions for gossip and malice, above and beyond the biographer’s legitimate concerns. Packaged with a particularly hangdog picture of the ex-president on its cover, this book explores loaded subjects like Mr. Clinton’s last-minute pardons, imperiled legacy, flashy new billionaire friends and business connections. It’s a book with chapter headings like “It’s Monica, Stupid!” and “Philanderer in Chief.”
Given the relative dearth of book-length reporting on Mr. Clinton’s suburban years, Ms. Felsenthal does have a worthwhile opportunity. A postpresidency is of great historical interest, none more so than that of Theodore Roosevelt, whose struggle with life out of the limelight was part of Ms. Felsenthal’s inspiration for “Clinton in Exile.” And while no two postpresidencies are alike, she presents Mr. Clinton’s as more like Roosevelt’s than that of Jimmy Carter. “Bill Clinton found the prospect of looking to Jimmy Carter totally unattractive,” she writes. Mr. Clinton, she says, envies Mr. Carter his Nobel Peace Prize.
No comments:
Post a Comment