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Summary: State of a Union has changed my mind about Hillary
Review: I read jerry oppenheimer's book on martha stewart and was really impressed -- both with his writing and his research. this guy is one of the best pop biographer's i've ever read. I bought three bpooks last week...american rhapsody, the day john died and state of a union -- all are garbage compared to oppenheimer's. the day john died is all rehash and boring to read...american rhapsody is an lsd trip. But as a New Yorker, a Democrat and a Hillary supporter state of a union had great impact on me. it's the first i ever read about hillary's drive and ambition.
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Summary: Another Clinton book - but well researched
Review: I read the book cover-to-cover the day it arrived. This is probably the best researched book on the Clinton's written to date. It includes notes and sources as well as in index. The book provides background detail on both Hillary and Bill Clinton. I feel that it a balanced and objective view of both them including some ancestral and childhood background and their lives from childhood to the Whitehouse. There are many quotations from both detracters and supporters. This book is well worth reading.
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Summary: Forget about the slur controversy...read the book
Review: I read this book and was fascinated with the level of insight concerning both the Clintons. My advice -- forget about the slur controversy, read this book. You won't believe what you find out.
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Summary: This was fascinating!
Review: I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Clinton's...until now. Interviews with family, colleagues, and associates who had never spoken out before put a fresh light on the Clinton's and their life together. This was an eye opening and well balanced look into the Clinton's marriage. I learned much more then the negative press would have lead me to believe.
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Summary: A Preference for Fluff
Review: I'm not familiar with the author but having finished most of the book by now, I consider it to be about 20% truth, and 80% fiction. To be honest, it is one of the most seedy collections of anecdotes I've seen on the Clintons matched only by the "accidentally revealed" impeachment depositions and documents of his second term. If ever there was evidence of grudge and harrassment against Hillary, this surely speaks for itself. How much is accurate is debateable, of course, but even a reasonably careful reading shows the book to have incorporated every negative possible of the interpretation of Clinton's Presidency and his wife's influence and involvement. Even a logical reading indicates that most could not be true, or if true, is such a distorted picture of the two lives that it renders it both inexplicable and unbelievable that anyone would spend time constructing supposedly factual information such as this and marketing it as nonfiction. For anyone who was even the most casual observor of the two terms, it will surely bring forth concerns of how authors use their writings to distort events, personalities, and circumstances to create an illusion of truth based upon circumstantial evidence and assumption. To the gullible, it can be quite damaging since it is presented as truth, and due to the quotations, reads like truth. If I had written the book, and was trying to discredit the subject, I couldn't have done a better job. No one knows exactly how much of previous books and materials published contain accurate information about the Clintons, events, or their relationship together, this is not likely to be one of them. But each person will have to decide for himself/herself. Good luck!
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Summary: The Truth At Certain Times Needs To Be Reasoned Out!
Review: Jerry Oppenheimer has always written good unauthorized books on many subjects from Martha Stewart to Barbara Walters. All of his books are written with the most careful verification of superb journalistic practices and standards. He does so because his books report what his subject's publicity machines often ignore because as entertainers they rise to sell themselves. However, I have no doubt, much of what I read was indeed accurate, but why now and why these two political subjects, is what I kept asking while reading this book. What I objected to in this book was the timing and the topics. Hillary Clinton is by no means an Anti-Semite regardless of alleged words used in anger 20 years ago, her actions in totality have proven this over the same period. Even her worse enemies will agree with me on this issue. We all make mistakes. We all grow from such failures of ambition, thoughtless words of rage and immature learned ignorance, that is what makes us human. Therefore, the more I read the more I felt it was unfair to point out the habitual discord that occurs in the Clintons' marriage, relationship and political campaigns over a life time. Yes, the Clintons' are public figures in the public domain and like many of us, preach better than they practice. I just felt that by all reasonable values of insight the lines of individual intimacy have been crossed at a time meant to hurt them. Some will say the Clintons' deserve such exposure, because blaming others without proof and ruining reputations to pay for real or imagined Clinton's sins is their political trademark. A blinded pliant media deserve blame too since much of this information should have been reported way back in 1992. The press pardoning tactics allegedly used by Nixon and once condemn by them is nothing short of hypocrisy. Yet, other will say when you are in power you must use power and all ends justify the means. The author does write about events that will provide additional perceptiveness into the Clintons' but does so at the price of their peculiar lives, pride, and privacy. The important thing to remember is that they still led a life of public service overcoming obstacles that would wipe out others in the process. Now many political victims do not agree with Clinton's politics, and some will argue that the Clinton's misuse power to counter what is being done to them, but do it even better, as the book points out. History will be the ultimate judge. The book is only the first of many to come because sex, seduction and scandal sell only second to the same subjects found in the bible. The Clinton marriage deserves kindness, fairness and understanding as we would expect from others judging us. Few couples in America can survive such scrutiny and exposure. Marriage is a tough commitment, public service a road of past embarrassments and perfect people simply do not existent. Even if such reports are an accurate depiction of puerile growth, it often takes yesterday's dirt to bring forth nutrients for today's sweet fruit. Bill and Hillary merit some private decency during these last days in office. I found little such thoughtfulness in this book.
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Summary: A Hillary biographer respects Jerry's book
Review: Jerry Oppenheimer's book is the best biography of Hillary and offers new perspectives about her based on research. This is the first author to study both her mother's and father's families using records and interviews in Chicago and Scranton. It's good on Bill too because Jerry acknowledges the superiority of Maraniss' book on Bill although he has some original data on Bill's girlfriend, "the college girl" from the 1974 congressional race. Jerry's interviews about Hillary's father Hugh break new ground. I'm a Hillary and Bill biographer so I know what's out there. Paul Lowinger, paulow99@yahoo. com
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Summary: A Hillary biographer respects Jerry's book
Review: Jerry Oppenheimer's book is the best biography of Hillary and offers new perspectives about her based on research. This is the first author to study both her mother's and father's families using records and interviews in Chicago and Scranton. It's good on Bill too because Jerry acknowledges the superiority of Maraniss' book on Bill although he has some original data on Bill's girlfriend, "the college girl" from the 1974 congressional race. Jerry's interviews about Hillary's father Hugh break new ground. I'm a Hillary and Bill biographer so I know what's out there. Paul Lowinger, paulow99@yahoo. com
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Summary: Incorrect data damages author's credibility
Review: Okay, so it's a small thing, but on page 92 of the Harper Collins hard-cover edition, the author states that one of Hillary's relatives graduated from Stevens College in COLUMBUS, MISSOURI. NOT! Stephens College is in Columbia, Missouri, which is also the location of the University of Missouri, touted by many, ironically, as the leading journalism school in the country. I really do not understand errors like this. Is it just plain sloppiness or carelessness? In the presence of a stupid mistake like this, are there possible other research mistakes, larger ones, perhaps? I will add that this book, notwithstanding the fact that after page 92, I read with some degree of skepticism, was fundamentally a good read, well organized, informative, and interesting.
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Summary: Changed My Mind About Hillary
Review: Prior to reading the widely-quoted controversial selections from this book, I thought that Mrs. Clinton was a tranparently fake and self-serving political creature. But I now feel compelled to adjust that harsh opinion in light of the most recent unprincipled attacks on her. Like many politicians, and many people, there are things in Clinton's past that are a bit unseemly when seen in the full light of day. But all judgements are relative, and the vitriol of too many people on the (far) right seem far worse than anything she has done, and she has to her credit accomplishments far greater than the author of this book.
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