Description:
It all seemed so uneventful: two couples on a double date, a hearty Southern meal of fried steak and turnip greens, jovial conversations about work, and the "casual" mention of a great business venture involving land on the White River. But these two couples were Bill and Hillary Clinton and their then-close friends Jim and Susan McDougal. The great business scheme was dubbed Whitewater, which snowballed into one of the great political scandals--or witch-hunts, depending on your point of view--of our time. Arkansas Mischief is the late Jim McDougal's autobiography, but inevitably the book will be devoured not for its strengths as a memoir but for its allegations of presidential misconduct. McDougal makes several new allegations against President Clinton, including one that he intended to fully pardon Susan McDougal for her Whitewater involvement, something the White House vigorously denies. Is the book just a series of sensational untruths told by an embittered and disillusioned man? McDougal himself admits that he suffered from manic-depression, so can he be believed? The stories of political corruption are casually woven into the book's narrative and don't read like tabloid sleaze. Yet ultimately very few people know the actual truth, and the reader must draw his or her own conclusions. Regardless of the allegations' legitimacy, McDougal and his cowriter Curtis Wilkie have written an engaging and often witty memoir. A devoted Democrat from a young age, McDougal recalls how he "always thought every town should have one Republican, just as every town seemed to have one village idiot and one town drunk." The biography traces McDougal's rise as a Democratic campaigner and activist, opening our eyes to the unique and controversial workings of the Arkansas political scene of the past 50 years. Although McDougal died in prison before the release of his autobiography, Arkansas Mischief remains a lasting testament to an elusive yet endearing man whose revelations threatened to topple the president. --Naomi Gesinger
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