My Life

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My Life

Product Description
President Bill Clinton’s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who chose early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public.

It shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House–a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, effective as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, apt part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney all-purpose, and administrator.

We see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political life.

We come to know the emotional pressures of his youth–born after his father’s death; caught in the dysfunctional relationship between his feisty, nurturing mother and his abusive stepfather, whom he never stopped to like and whose name he took; drawn to the brilliant, compelling Hillary Rodham, whom he was determined to marry; passionately devoted, from her infancy, to their daughter, Chelsea, and to the entire experience of fatherhood; slowly and painfully beginning to comprehend how his early denial of pain led him at times into damaging patterns of behavior.

President Clinton’s book is also the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written–encompassing not only the high points and crises but the way the presidency really works: the day-to-day bombardment of problems, personalities, conflicts, setbacks, achievements.

It is a tribute to the positive impact on America and on the world of his work and his ideals.

It is the gripping account of a president under concerted and inexorable assault orchestrated by his enemies on the Far Right, and how he survived and prevailed.

It is a treasury of moments caught alive, among them:

  • The ten-year-ancient boy watching the national political conventions on his family tree’s new (and first) television set.

  • The young candidate looking for votes in the Arkansas hills and the local seer who tells him, “Anyone who would battle at a beer joint in Joiner at midnight on Saturday night deserves to carry one box…. You’ll win here. But it’ll be the only damn place you win in this county.” (He was right on both counts.)

  • The roller-coaster ride of the 1992 battle.

  • The extraordinarily frank exchanges with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole.

  • The delicate manipulation needed to convince Rabin and Arafat to shake hands for the camera while keeping Arafat from kissing Rabin.

  • The cost, both public and private, of the scandal that threatened the presidency.

    Here is the life of a fantastic national and international figure, revealed with all his talents and contradictions, told openly, directly, in his own completely recognizable voice. A unique book by a unique American.Amazon.com Review
    An exhaustive, soul-searching memoir, Bill Clinton’s My Life is a refreshingly candid look at the ex- president as a son, brother, teacher, father, spouse, 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 ruin 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 tale of his youth with gusto, sharing tales of giant watermelons, nine-pound tumors, a charging ram, legendary 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 past 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 painstakingly it is infused with Clinton’s unassuming, charmingly pithy voice:


    I learned a lot from the tales my uncle, aunts, and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are excellent; 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 regularly the best, and sometimes the only, response to pain.

    But, 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 tale–recollections about Mother, his abusive stepfather, Hillary, the battle trail, and Kenneth Starr–the sincerity of emotion and Kitchen Confidential-type revelations about “what it is like to be President” make My Life impossible to place down.

    To Clinton, “politics is a contact sport,” and while he claims that My Life is not proposed to make excuses or assign blame, it does described 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 revenge 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

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