Rating: 
Summary: Finally! An honest, account of the Whitewater fiasco.
Review: I received this book as a gift, and coincidently, watched her on C-span's booktv recently. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand what, why, and who, regarding the whitewater investigation. What is truly sad is that many of the same people involved in this story are doing quite well now, having been rewarded for their nefarious efforts. Three cheers for Ms.McDougal!!! This country needs more ppl like her.
Rating: 
Summary: The Truth as I know it...
Review: I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The book was a fun read, and I must admit that I liked Susan by the end of it. But the book left too many unanswered questions... which are easy to answer if you assume Susan is a tremendous liar or an tremendous idiot.
With contempt of court, aren't you in jail at the judge's discretion? What's the penalty for perjury? Is it more than 18 months is prison? But if convicted of perjury, can't you appeal? You obviously can't appeal a comtempt citation. And if Susan was innocent, and Starr had given up trying to imprison her, why would a Clinton pardon mean anything?
I admire Susan's compassion for the inmates when in women's prison and how she identifies with their collective lack of guilt (they were all in the wrong place at the wrong time... just like Susan). But won't all convicts will tell you how innocent they are? Nor do I think that women's prison is like the big slumber party as Susan describes it to be.
And lastly, her monumental "defeat" of Starr's army... well whoopee. It will, I guess, be a footnote on a footnote in history.
If you hate Starr and love Clinton, this book will be perfect for you... but, remember, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth as I know it...
Review: I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The book was a fun read, and I must admit that I liked Susan by the end of it. But the book left too many unanswered questions... which are easy to answer if you assume Susan is a tremendous liar or an tremendous idiot.
With contempt of court, aren't you in jail at the judge's discretion? What's the penalty for perjury? Is it more than 18 months is prison? But if convicted of perjury, can't you appeal? You obviously can't appeal a comtempt citation. And if Susan was innocent, and Starr had given up trying to imprison her, why would a Clinton pardon mean anything?
I admire Susan's compassion for the inmates when in women's prison and how she identifies with their collective lack of guilt (they were all in the wrong place at the wrong time... just like Susan). But won't all convicts will tell you how innocent they are? Nor do I think that women's prison is like the big slumber party as Susan describes it to be.
And lastly, her monumental "defeat" of Starr's army... well whoopee. It will, I guess, be a footnote on a footnote in history.
If you hate Starr and love Clinton, this book will be perfect for you... but, remember, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional catharsis
Review: I was disposed to like Whitewater figure and Kenneth Starr nemesis Susan McDougal before I ever read her book and have long felt that a justice system which rewards those who tell prosecutors what they want to hear (immunity, plea bargaining) and penalizes those who insist on their innocence or their right to a jury trial, is flawed. So I'm not exactly unbiased. But who is?
The first part of McDougal's emotionally engaging narrative covers childhood, then marriage to real estate developer and founder of the ill-fated Madison Guaranty S&L, Jim McDougal. The Marriage and various businesses failed and she embarked on a romance with Madison Guaranty employee then lawyer, Pat Harris, and a claustrophobic employee/friend relationship with Nancy Mehta.
Outgoing and shy, loud and retiring, depending on the company, McDougal does not come across as the sort of person to go to jail rather than answer questions. One minute her life is going along willy nilly, from one controlling, needy, demanding personality to another, when wham! Suddenly neurotic, vesuvial Mehta is charging her with grand larceny and the Office of the Independent Counsel is offering dire threats and deliverance from all - including the Mehta charges, which hardly seems within their purview. Friendly and likable, McDougal seems primarily characterized by her optimistic naivety. She even looks forward to her first session with the OIC: "I felt that there were a lot of false statements and ridiculous rumors, particularly about Madison, that I could help clear up."
But her get-out-of-jail-free card comes with a catch - testimony against the Clintons. McDougal does a fine job of describing her flabbergasted outrage and her dawning awareness of the trap closing around her. Aghast after the first Whitewater trial when she was convicted of things "I was not even aware had happened until ten years later," McDougal begins to fear the OIC will stop at nothing to get Clinton. It was not bravery, she says again, that made her clam up, but the certainty that Starr would indict her for perjury if she insisted on the truth - she didn't know anything bad about the Clintons. She knew she might go to jail for contempt, but she never dreamed it would be for the full 18 months allowable by law.
The second half - prison - is riveting, horrifying and inspiring. Her first jail was easy, comparatively. The food was lousy, but she made friends. The worst hardship was lack of reading material - the only book inmates were allowed was the Bible. But no sooner does she say on the phone, " `I could do the whole eighteen months here,' " than she's whisked off to a mental ward in a federal facility and from there to lockdown (23 hours a day solitary confinement) on "Murderer's Row". There were seven prisons in all, but however bad things got (sadistic guards, overflowing toilets, body cavity searches, sensory deprivation) McDougal always found some interest to sustain her - usually one or more of the inmates who, needless to say, all had lives immeasurably worse than hers.
On her release, the OIC filed criminal contempt and obstruction of justice charges against her and she still had the Mehta charges to face. Triumphing against both, McDougal spares an ounce of sympathy for Nancy Mehta, but her flush of victory against Starr and the OIC is unadulterated glee and great fun to read. In the end, McDougal says jail was good for her. She still hates the people who put her there and believes they were behind many of the special humiliations and privations she endured, but "there's no doubt in my mind that I'm a far better person than I was before."
Spiked with emotional peaks and valleys, McDougal's memoir is compulsively readable - and believable.
Rating:
Summary: If I could only be so gutsy!
Review: I was impressed with Ms.McDougal's courage during the Ken Starr/OIC fiasco. This book gives a more in depth look at what she really had to endure at the hands of these dishonest and cruel people. She also devotes space to her prison experiences. It is an amazing, well written story. I couldn't put it down. Congratulations Susan! Well done!
Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring Story by an Ordinary Woman
Review: If you believe that each person's life reflects not what life deals to him or her, but what that person makes of life, you will respond appreciatively to this book. Susan McDougal's life just happened to intersect with Bill and Hillary Clinton's and the result truly made history. She was an ordinary woman who faced a difficult challenge with rare courage. Her story is an inspiration and a source of encouragement in these difficult political times. The tale is fascinating and well-written, and you will keep thinking about the book after you put it down. My one complaint is that the book was not edited thoroughly before printing, and I hope the occasional typos and grammar errors will be removed before another printing. Thank you, Susan McDougal, for all you went through to sustain truth and personal integrity, and for your on-going concern about women who remain in prison. I worried about you while you were undergoing your ordeal, as did so many millions of others whom you will never meet, and I rejoiced in your victory. Thank you for writing this book.
Rating:
Summary: She talked when it mattered!
Review: If you want to know the inside scoop about Susan, the frightening tactics used by the OIC, and about the strength of just one woman to stop the criminals on the right who were determined to break her, buy this book. It is a page turner and I couldn't put it down once I started it. Susan is revealed as an all too human somewhat gullible woman who went through a remarkable transformation in prison. The OIC's tactics and Ken Starr should be the ones jailed for the rest of their lives for what they did to ordinary citizens like Susan, and Julie Hiatt Steele.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, convincing and ultimately scary
Review: If you're skeptical about the justice system now, you'll be totally appalled after you read this book. Susan McDougal lost two years of her life to false accusations and bogus charges. As she pointed out, she couldn't testify without risking charges of perjury, because her husband was willing to sell out. And she really didn't have anything to say. What's truly scary is that Susan McDougal served almost her entire sentence for refusing to testify, although little was to be gained after a few months. The conditions of her incarceration were horrendous. Often she was more afraid of the guards than her fellow prisoners. The Mehta accusations were so bizarre that the jury complained -- yet McDougal had trouble finding a lawyer to represent her. She was incredibly lucky when a top-notch lawyer volunteered. Yes, justice depends entirely on accidents like this one. What's amazing is that McDougal emerged from her nightmare not only sane but also determined to speak out on behalf of women prisoners. She doesn't preach or proclaim: she just tells her story. In the end, that's more chilling than any drama she could have created.
Rating:
Summary: The Strength of Silence
Review: In 'The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk', Susan McDougal demonstrates that silence can often be more potent than words, no matter how eloquent. The book is exceptional and the author captures the essence of courage with economy and moving insight. I was so impressed that I sent a copy to many of my friends, most of whom commented favourably. The one dissenting voice was from Jack Nicholson. After he'd received it, he called me and said, "Schwarz, you're kidding me, right? A woman who wouldn't talk? Come on, get a grip on reality. It's an urban myth. Next you'll be telling me that there's such a thing as a modest actor or a sober journalist. My friend, although I starred in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', the location was never my residence." He was still laughing hysterically as he hung up. 'The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk' is essential reading.
Rating: 
Summary: I know realtors, realtors are friends of mine.,.
Review: Let's face it, it always seems more real when it's about someone you "know" and in a few pages I started to know who Susan McDougal was. Anyone whose title page is full of puns, with references to old movies, is on my wavelength; having lived and worked with realtors, I symapthize with her struggles to recall (much less testify) to those eye-glazing transactions when Jim McDougal was looking to rule the world. It is strange to start off in Jean Kerr territory and then wind up Kafkaesque, but Susan convinces us of her slow awakening from the newlywed's quotidian struggles, into the perverse universe of party politics (she barely knew the President whose political life she was repeated asked to sabotage.) Aside from the "Whitewater" non-event, she risked jail time on the say-so of a former employer, surviving through unlikely outbursts of kindness on the part of strangers. She leaves you with a sense of the general randomness and cruelty of the justice system that is especially harrowing, when you meet the harmless people it happens to.
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