Bill Clinton

The name Bill Clinton evokes several reactions among people, each with its own emotional subtext: economic prosperity, partisan conflict, sexual misconduct, and international peacemaking. In a long history of American presidential memoirs, Clinton adds his to the list in this book. It is lengthy, thoughtful, and carefully crafted. He attempts to provide insight into himself and his leadership while advocating for the policies his administration enacted during his presidency.

I was a show more Republican teenager from a Republican home during the Clinton years. This book evoked memories of loyal opposition. However, Clinton’s successes – combined with W’s relative failures and Obama’s relative successes – have moved me to consistently vote as a Democrat today. Clinton’s memories in this account allowed me to reimagine the history around me. His clear voice provides persuasive explanations for his policies.

The first half of this book is devoted to his life before the presidency. To me, this formed the most interesting part – how exactly he overcame many challenges to rise to the height of political power. Much of the second half (his eight-year presidency) was embroiled with tensions with Republicans and thus was not as enjoyable. However, his passionate advocacy for international peacemaking came through clearly, from Northern Ireland and Africa to North Korea and Israel/Palestine. Providing this rationale for foreign policies is perhaps the most valuable from a historical perspective, specifically how the personalities of the involved characters shaped the failure to find lasting Middle East peace.

Of course, this book was written well before the “Me Too” movement, and the power dynamics of sexual relationships do not make Clinton look good. He acknowledges missteps, both with Monica Lewinsky and with vaguely described earlier mistakes, but he spares readers gaudy details. He talks about personal growth that impeachment and marital/family rifts evoked. He never seems to fully grasp that a leader’s private life always comes out in the public portrait. I took this overarching lesson from events in the 1990s and hold onto it still.

Overall, this memoir is certainly needed to fill out the historical record. Some might criticize him for being too lengthy and thought-out, but isn’t this the job of a president, to care for her/his own country? Frankly, Clinton’s vision for the world is beautiful and good. If one is willing to think through the policy details with him, this book can be beneficial for dreaming the world’s “tomorrow.” Like the Clinton presidency itself, shortcomings in this portrayal’s self-awareness remain, but this frankly can be said for any of us. show less

Wow! That was a heart thumper! I was nervous the entire time I was reading it. Well written, of course, and lots of interesting details about government and the type of politics that goes on there, provided, I suppose, by WJC, although I'm sure Patterson could manage. The last chapter is absolutely all Clinton. Fun reading even if it does give one nightmares.

An unknown but severe threat hangs in the air as the U.S. president tries to solve it -- against a ticking clock.

This book wasn't really what I expected; I was anticipating a more traditional mystery and, with that title, I thought we would be looking for a president whose whereabouts were unknown. Instead, the majority of the book is told from that president's point of view as he works to save the country from a terroristic threat. Although he narrates from a first-person perspective, the show more president does withhold information from the reader, only releasing small bits here and there, which adds to the sense of intrigue.

That being said, I definitely enjoyed the book I read. The sense of doom was quite real (a more frightening situation than a missing president, to be honest) and the suspense was certainly there. The characters were interesting, although some of them were a bit more one-note than others. Many of the so-called villains were portrayed sympathetically.

Most of the book walks a fine line between suspense and explanations of actual politics. The end, however, becomes a diatribe for Clinton to discuss his own political priorities. While I didn't disagree with much of what he had to say, it seemed very random to come out of this terror threat and start talking about fair wages and other progressive platforms. My thought during this part was "Does Bill Clinton plan to run for office again?" as it sounded like quite the stump speech.

On the whole though, this book was an interesting, action-packed read. Despite being lengthy, it reads quickly. I'd recommend it to those who like political intrigue and suspense books.

The audiobook version was well done, with several different narrators. I particularly liked how the sections related to the assassin code-named "Bach" would include snippets of the classical music she was listening to or thinking about at the time. show less

I was looking forward to reading this book and my worst fears were confirmed because it was not up to the sort of standard I expect of James Patterson. Whilst the story was excellent and when Patterson was allowed to get into his stride the book moved along at quite a pace. However all too frequently the hand of Bill Clinton came in and slowed the entire story down. I did not want to listen to his political ideals and wondered occasionally if this was a fictional book or a political show more Broadcast. Nevertheless a good story with a scary undertone reminding us that we have become totally and utterly reliant upon the Internet. It was a terrorist that wanted to launch a virus that took out the American ability to access the Internet requiring the president to go undercover and with the aid of various countries and cyber terrorist geeks defeated the plan. Let’s hope James Patterson does not release his wonderful storytelling powers to other political amateurs. show less