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Summary: Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan
Review: Much More than I Expected.I quess I cheated because I listened to the Audio vice reading the book in its entirety. That way, I suppose, I missed a lot of the discussion of/by the objectionable fictional biographer. I was pleasantly surprized to learn that Mr. Reagan was much more intelligent than I had been lead to believe. I totally enjoyed reading about an era and a president from the perspective of a non-politico who seems to have been able to assemble and express fairly the data to which he had access. Since I believe that Mr. Reagan was an extremely private person, I am surprized to find as much information about his thoughts while he was preparing for his presidential duties. I found the excerpts from his diary and letters to his wife appealing and quite human. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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Summary: Set aside plenty of time to read this book
Review: I read the reviews before I bought the book. I understood that the author had introduced himself as a narrator of sorts. I had no idea how intrusive this tactic would be. I normally read books at a pretty fast clip and retain the information pretty well. In this case, I had to keep checking to make sure I understood whether the author was talking about Reagan or about himself, which isn't even quite himself, but a person similar to himself that might have lived when and where Reagan lived. I found the book very informative, but I thought gaining information was relatively painful.
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Summary: Still waiting
Review: We waited for this, wanted it, needed it, and got such a disapointment. Morris glosses over important events, using the space to try to show that he is an intellectual. Am I the only one that will say I object to a writer assuming that we all know French?
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Summary: Fictive history as enigmatic as Reagan himself
Review: I didn't expect to like this book. I was surprised. I've never read a book this size in four days (and I read for a living). I laughed, I cried, I cheered and booed, and I cannot get this book out of my head. Part of what I'm struggling with is a sense that I've been taken in again by a confidence man (as I was in 1980 and 1984). But the stories in "Dutch" are at least as compelling as the fabrication Ronald Reagan concocted to push his notion of welfare "reform". I suspect that most readers who are disappointed by "Dutch" are looking for other books--the hagiography by Dinesh D'Souza, the "objective" tomes by Lou Cannon, or the exceptional study by Michael Rogin. "Dutch" is more personal, although the persona at the heart of the book (the author) is a work of fiction. The difficulty many readers have with the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction in this work is so Reagan-like that I cannot comprehend their dislike of the book. "Dutch" will stand as a testament to the brilliant ignorance of Ronald Reagan and his era less for its analysis of the times, than for its expression of them. I not only voted for Reagan twice, I argued with friends, put up posters, and wore buttons promoting his election in 1980. By 1988 the disaster beneath the "good times" the press created in their "news" stories had convinced me to vote for Jesse Jackson. My story cannot be told without reference to Reagan, his should not be told without reference to the ways he affected ordinary Americans. President Reagan restored a sense of national pride in America, but much of the basis of this sense of pride should appal us. The Reagan Presidency increased class privilege for a few, redefined economic success in ways that hurt most of us (including a deepening of economic roots in military technologies), set envionmental protections back two decades, and aggravated racial tensions. The reverence that many continue to hold for Reagan, his continuing appeal, presents an enigma that demands new methods for comprehending the past and present. Although clumsy in certain ways (Edmund Morris is no Toni Morrison), "Dutch" is an admirable beginning.
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Summary: Not the definitive biography Morris was hired to write
Review: I don't have very much to add to what has already been written. However, what I was most disappointed by was the little new information about Reagan's presidency that was developed. Though the book has much to say about Reagan as a person, Morris adds virtually nothing to the historical record regarding the Reagan presidency or any other aspect of his political career, despite the access he was given. In short, a fairly well-written book that is not really worth the time or money.
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Summary: Great President; Poor Book
Review: How in the world could Edmund Morris have dropped the ball on this? I ignored the press and gave this book a fair chance. But the author's "method" of inserting himself into the book makes it unclear when he is talking about fact or fiction throughout the book. If he had simply written a straight forward biography he would have been much better served. That's why he was commissioned for the job and many of us Americans who lived through the '80s have been waiting for this book for a long time. Morris let us all down with this rambling scrapbook.
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Summary: A puzzle but worth it.
Review: I found this book to be fascinating. It takes about 200 pages to get used to the author's style of writing and then it is full speed ahead. I liked the fictional characters inserted by the author because, for me, it made the subject of the book more interesting. It puts you INTO the book and almost makes you feel that you are there, in time, with Reagan, instead of just merely reading about him. I have recommended it to all my friends.
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Summary: This is a better book than Morris has been credited for...
Review: I read this book with much anticipation and high expectations. As preparation, I read Morris's first volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Based upon this effort, I was prepared and looking forward to a similar effort. I, too, found that use of historical, fictional characters cumbersome and obstructive to reading the book and understanding Reagan. I'm not sure why Morris needed this device, but notwithstanding the lapse of not informing the reader more clearly beforehand, I am willing to grant Morris the literary, though (for non-fiction) unconventional license to utilize such a tool to tell Reagan's story. Having said this, I found the book quite educational and that it fulfilled my expectation of informing me why Reagan was so successful as president, something even I am now willing to understand and admit. If for no other reason than understanding the derivation of the title "Dutch", this book is worth reading. Because Reagan's childhood nickname, "Dutch" and the exploits behind it, in my opinion, capture the essence of why Reagan was so successful in every phase of his life, a fact that Morris vividly points out, and why he was able to surmount various scandals in his presidency, establish a personal relationship with the American people, and leverage that popularity on the world stage to talk down the U.S.S.R. with the help of Gorbachev and other Western leaders. Although the book does not consume alot of the reader's time on the latter part of Reagan's political career as president, I believe that this is the proper allocation of the author's time and space. The author's concentration on Reagan's formative years in Illinois as a child and in college and his years in Hollywood are important prerequisites to understanding the more mature Reagan of his latter years as governor, political personality and president. Morris has provided this background through a thorough collection and accumulation of facts; written Reagan's personal story with grace, sympathy and objectivity; and left the reader with an indelible image of why people like me, in retrospect, are fans of Reagan when heretofore, we could not understand why Reagan was able to connect with the American people.
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Summary: Hugely disappointed
Review: This was a hugely disappointing book. I looked for a professional, objective statement of the Reagan presidency. Instead we got cheap shots of a personal nature before the book even began to tell its "story", as well as inflated personal assessments of the Reagan presidency. It would be an improvement if Mrs Reagan or one of their children gathered up his letters and memos and did a book like George Bush's. It would certainly be more entertaining and enlightening (even though there are problemns with that method). It beats this authors so-called method.
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Summary: THE PAIN OF FAILING TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION
Review: As Edmund Morris produces page after page, we see him start to sweat. He carries a huge burden. Never has a biographer been given such access to a sitting American President. Ronald Reagan maneuvers through a gauntlet of nuclear-age decisions and political minefields. Morris observes from a priviledged perch and conducts exclusive interviews frequntly, free from deadlines and the the strictures of journalism. Time has passed. Ronald Reagan-- personally and professionally-- is slipping from current affairs toward history, and Edmund Morris had to produce. As he assays the mountain of fact and opinion he has gathered, we feel the author tighten. And we find out why as he leads us into Ronald Reagan's world. In spite of painstaking research and virtually unlimited access to primary sources, Edmund Morris never understands the forces the shape Reagan. The author creates an imaginary contemporary of Reagan's to observe and comment on his subject's early years. It proves a distracting ploy, forcing the reader to constantly decide what is fact and what is fiction. Even worse, the faux-Morris is an annoying little weasel, sniggering at Dutch's generally-admirable young exploits, while exhibitting what seems like an unhealthy attraction to his subject. Failing to grasp the simple and rail-straight values Reagan drew from the early 20th-century mid-west, Morris never catches up as Dutch maneuvers through life. Reagan doesn't analyze relationships, while Morris can't stop. The author sketches Dutch as cold and impersonal, when Reagan simply follows the code that men of his background accepted as manly and proper. The author's frustration grows as he ponders Reagan's show-business skills and savvy. Morris is an academic, and proves it at every turn. Too bad he can't climb into Dutch's head and feel the love of a faceless audience, the thrill of moving your eyes just so, and watching people react. Morris looks at the words Reagan spoke in Berlin: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." He only sees the words and hears only the reaction of the small audience gathered near the Brandenburg Gate. His ears are tuned to a different medium, so he doesn't sense how the combination of words, voice, look and demeanor combine to vibrate with something visceral in the real people Ronald Reagan touched. Edmund and Dutch are too different. The biographer tells us about the compliments he pays and the gifts he gives, trying desparately to make an impression on the President, so that Reagan might really remember him. In the end, he fails. And it bothers him. Reading the result of his hard work, we understand why.
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