Saralee Says
"It was becoming clear to me that people who wanted me to fit into a certain box, traditionalist or feminist, would never be entirely satisfied with me as me - which is to say, with my many different, and sometimes paradoxical, roles," writes the author, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. That is the Cliffs Notes version of this book about a complex, intriguing, controversial woman.
Not since her role model, Eleanor Roosevelt, has there been such a polarizing First Lady of the United States. What is it about this American woman that is so captivating? Will reading her biography - which is more than 500 pages - change the way her fans and foes feel about her?
Living History (Simon & Schuster) is not as well-written as Katherine Graham's biography, Personal History, but then very few biographies are. But I still recommend investing the time it will take you to read Senator Clinton's book. Why? Hillary Rodham Clinton's story is an important piece of Americana because she is one of the first baby boomers to become a powerful political figure and her husband, Bill Clinton, was the first of my generation to become President.
She grew up in a conservative Goldwater for President Republican family in a suburb of Chicago. One of my favorite chapters included a description of her efforts to prove voter fraud in the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Presidential election. Her father was convinced that Mayor Daley had stolen the election and a then very young Hillary went out to canvas neighborhoods without her father's knowledge to get evidence of corruption in the political process. The author also explains her transformation from a Goldwater Republican to a "Renaissance" Democrat.
My questions for our book club are many. Do you think the author practiced revisionist history? Are you more interested in her story because of her career path - lawyer, teacher, United States Senator or because she was married to a former President who was the subject of investigations from the time he was elected to office until he left? Do you accept what she said about when she found out her husband had an affair with Monica Lewinsky? Do you even care about our former President's sex life? Is this book a love story? The author recounts in vivid details the first day she saw Bill Clinton, what she was wearing, the details of their first conversation and how she left a promising career in the east to follow him to Arkansas. Sounds like a woman who was in love then and still is today.
Is Living History a prelude to a presidential election? If so, I don't think it is any different from a man writing a book as a platform for his presidential campaign - do you?
People either loathe her or love her, there really is not much of a neutral feeling about her and judging from the skyrocketing sales of Living History, Senator Clinton still has the ability to fascinate the American public.
Larry's Language
The real test questions when you meet a politician, in person or by reading their book, center around sincerity, candor, news, and personality. If they are not believable, if they are not open in their views, if they do not have anything new to tell you, and if they are not interesting, then they are boring and not worthy of public office. Not a problem here.
Whether you like or hate Hillary Rodham Clinton (my disclosure: I like her and believe she will be the first female president in 2008), her new book Living History is fascinating and revealing as she clearly discloses her analytical personality and gives us her point of view about a wide range of issues from healthcare to foreign policy. Much of the public policy issue discussion however is dull for those of us who read the newspapers in the 1990s. We already knew that Senator Clinton favored massive reform of the American healthcare system, that she grew up in a Chicago suburb, excelled at Wellesley and Yale, worked on the Nixon impeachment hearings, moved to Arkansas to "stand by her man." and kept her Rodham last name until Bill Clinton was defeated for re-election for Governor.
We already knew that Vince Foster was a close personal friend for whom Senator Clinton has grieved, that Whitewater was a messy real estate deal, that she believes strongly in equal rights and human rights, that she supported Bill Clinton despite several serious accusations of personal misconduct (even before Monica) and that she deeply loves and protects her daughter Chelsea.
This book tells all of this again if you have forgotten it or did not notice it the first time through. The beauty of the book, however, is in the nuance and detail that is new. The family cat Socks and dog Buddy get 15 pages as compared to the 1992 campaign strategist George Stephanopoulos who only gets nine pages. The best part of this book is where Senator Clinton tells her feelings about growing up, her attitudes about civil rights, how books like To Kill A Mockingbird have influenced her, and her personal relationship with true heroes such as Marian Wright Edelman, Nelson Mandela and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Be sure and pay attention to all of the references in the book to Mickey Kantor who grew up in Nashville and is now a highly successful California and Washington, D.C. lawyer. While Al and Tipper Gore have numerous appearances in Living History, they are all routine political matters. You will not find any startling revelations here but if you want the Democratic political perspective of our nation's future, there is no better source.
Join us for our upcoming book club discussions which will feature our suggestions for summer reading, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History by George Crile and The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.
