An exhaustive, soul-searching memoir, Bill Clinton's My Life is a refreshingly candid look at the former president as a son, brother, teacher, father, husband, and public figure. The history of Clinton's biggest achievements and setbacks is meticulously outlined, including his commitment to economic and educational change, his battle against a "vast right-wing operation" that sought to discredit him, and the "morally indefensible" conduct that almost led to his impeachment. My Life is a personal chronicle written by a guy attempting to confront and overcome his inner issues. It is autobiography as therapy.
With much enthusiasm, Clinton shares stories from his childhood, including BB gun standoffs, huge watermelons, nine-pound tumors, a charging ram, and renowned mobsters and jazz artists. He covers the historical events that affected his early years (the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr.) and the events that defined his administration (Waco, Bosnia, and Somalia), offering an equally energizing portrayal of American history, pop culture, and the changing political environment. My Life is a fascinating political biography because of how much of Clinton's humble, endearingly sardonic voice it contains:
The stories my uncle, aunts, and grandparents told me taught me a lot of things, like that nobody is perfect and most people are good, that people shouldn't be judged solely on their worst or weakest moments, that harsh judgments can make us all seem hypocritical, that hanging on to life is a big part of life, and that laughing is frequently the best—and sometimes the only—reaction to suffering.
That same style, meanwhile, might bore readers when Clinton applies his obsession with little details to an overwhelming catalogue of incidents from his early years to his years as president. Clinton goes beyond in his attempt to remember every detail that might shed light on his behavior. Do we really need to know the name of his childhood barber? But when Clinton sticks to the meat of his story--recollections about Mother, his abusive stepfather, Hillary, the campaign trail, and Kenneth Starr--the veracity of emotion and Kitchen Confidential-type revelations about "what it is like to be President" make My Life impossible to put down.
Clinton's philosophy is that "politics is a contact sport," and while his book My Life does not try to place blame or provide an explanation, it does present him as a fighter who would "take the first hit, then counterpunch as hard as I could." My Life is essentially a walk through the memories of Hillary Clinton, but it's also a biting critique—a retribution against those who opposed him, like Kenneth Starr, whose "mindless search for scandal" shielded the guilty while "persecuting the innocent" and diverted his administration's attention from more important foreign issues (like the strikes on al Qaeda). Indeed, a counterpunch.
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 an extraordinarily personal and compelling look at the man he is now, the President he became, and the youngster he was. -- Durham Daphne