Lost Honor

Rating:
Summary: Fine work on John Dean's life post watergate
Review: It has been several years since I read this book, however it was a very good follow up to John Dean's book on the Watergate affair and his role in it.

I have found that many times over the years after I read a book, and become intrigued with the main character's life, hoping for a sequel. This book filled that need for me.

John Dean is a very intersting, multi faceted, much misunderstood individual. Reading the second book, helps to understand him and his motivations in the Watergate affair.

Rating:
Summary: Golly I'm An Important Historical Figure !!
Review: John (Now-That-I'm-An-Author) Dean's second book, which might be subtitled "More Cashing-In On My Notoriety, Quick While People Still Remember My Name!," presents a substantially greater volume of introspective navel-contemplation than does his first warp of reality, "Blind Ambition." Readers are treated to intriguing background about the Earl Butz joke, some marijuana use, and the personal creative eruption of a lifetime that yielded "Everything is different now," the final sentence in "Blind Ambition."

Before you buy any material from Mr. Dean, please read "Silent Coup" and ascertain, using the materials assembled by a couple of genuine hard-nosed investigative reporters, his true role in the Watergate episode. You will find that your first impression of Mr. Dean -- your initial gut reaction when you heard he was ratting on Richard Nixon -- was not as inaccurate as you later thought (though, as it turns out, for different reasons).

"Now that I'm an author, I'll wear my sweater draped around my neck and see if I can find a ghost writer (like Taylor Branch again) who can help me write down additional minutia about my life..."

Rating:
Summary: Golly I'm An Important Historical Figure !!
Review: John (Now-That-I'm-An-Author) Dean's second book, which might be subtitled "More Cashing-In On My Notoriety, Quick While People Still Remember My Name!," presents a substantially greater volume of introspective navel-contemplation than does his first warp of reality, "Blind Ambition." Readers are treated to intriguing background about the Earl Butz joke, some marijuana use, and the personal creative eruption of a lifetime that yielded "Everything is different now," the final sentence in "Blind Ambition."

Before you buy any material from Mr. Dean, please read "Silent Coup" and ascertain, using the materials assembled by a couple of genuine hard-nosed investigative reporters, his true role in the Watergate episode. You will find that your first impression of Mr. Dean -- your initial gut reaction when you heard he was ratting on Richard Nixon -- was not as inaccurate as you later thought (though, as it turns out, for different reasons).

"Now that I'm an author, I'll wear my sweater draped around my neck and see if I can find a ghost writer (like Taylor Branch again) who can help me write down additional minutia about my life..."

Rating:
Summary: Deep Throat and self-examination
Review: John Dean's follow-on to Blind Ambition is an interesting self-examination punctuated with commentary on Dean's suspicions regarding the true identity of Bob Woodward's source Deep Throat. The latter is the reason the book sold (if it did) while the former obviously was Dean's motivation for writing the book.

I listened to rather than read the book. The recording was well done, and the topic lends itself to the book on tape approach. Dean's tone is conversational, although the material may be a bit impenetrable unless one has a basic working knowledge of Watergate and its players.

Dean's self-examination is illuminating not only of his own feelings but also of our media culture, which presumably has only gotten worse since this book was published 20 years ago. Dean's predictions about presidential scandals of the future and the media's handling of it were prescient. I would like to see a book by Dean on Monicagate.

Dean's analysis of the Deep Throat question is incisive. He starts with the obvious, but he also examines the obscure, behind the scenes players who may have had the information necessary to be Deep Throat. His commentary on the shoddiness of the Washington Post's reporting is a bit self-serving; he prefers to see himself as the one who broke the story. That said, it is a thoughtful and seemingly fair rebuttal of the conventional wisdom that "Woodstein" brought down the president.

All in all, a satisfying trip to an earlier time.