Rating: 
Summary: This is an exercise in flowery and fictional imagery
Review: The audio version should not be played while operating a motor vehicle or heavy machinery. It needs to have a cautionary lable attached. It will cause drowsiness as the author drones on. It carries with it the ability to cause physical injury to the listener and may also damage your desire to know more about President Regan.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS BOOK!
Review: Deserves less than one star but one star is the lowest rating I can give. Return this book if you have purchased it.This book is more about Morris than Reagan. Morris, for all he obvious intellect, cannot figure out how Ronald Reagan could accomplish so much without being an intellectual. I gave the reviews and write-ups the benefit of the doubt however after force reading 65 pages of Morris' drivel, I am returning the book.
Rating:
Summary: How can you be so close and fumble the ball????
Review: All of the press on this book is the only reason I read it. I already have my opinion of President Reagan and his Presidency. I have read several other books about Reagan, liberally and conservatively biased, and Dutch was by far the most ignorant of them all. I repect what Reagan did for America. But the whole purpose of this book is to smear Reagan and leave a lasting black-mark on his legacy. Who paid off Mr. Morris? I am not a biographer. However, if I had all of the access and time that Mr. Morris had, I could have written everyone a 10 thousand page encyclopedia set. What an absolute waste!
Rating: 
Summary: So disappointing! It's a novel, not a biography.
Review: I was intrigued when I read about Morris' unconventional approach, and looked forward to the book. But once I got into it, "Dutch" made me angry. It's not biography. It's a fictional tale about an extremely self-centered writer, with Ronald Reagan kind of flickering around in the background. The most self-indulgent and infuriating part of the book is when Morris spends two pages telling us how successful his Roosevelt biography was in 1980 -- but only offers half a page on the fascinating presidential election that year. Morris is much more interested in himself than in Reagan or U.S. history. I'm almost tempted to ask for my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointment
Review: I had placed an advanced order for the book. Frankly I am worst than extremely dissapointed at the style and content of the book. My expectation was for a serious work and what I got was a mixture of fiction,commentary and an author with an oversized ego. This is not even close to what I had expected. I guess that I will have to add the name of Mr. Edmund Morris to my list of authors to avoid. A truly incompetent piece.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book with a black marker not a highlighter
Review: Edmund Morris seems to have forgotten that the main character in a biography is not the author. If you choose to read this book, and I recommend you don't, take a black marker and cross-out all the references to the fictional character who seems to be Morris himself. This will lessen the dribble for you to read and somewhat diminsh the pain of the experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant... yet ill-conceived
Review: It's all so simple, "Dutch" is basically written as a movie. It reminded me of Citizen Kane (who was J.F. Kane?... what's this Rosebud all about?...) Morris is obviously a talented writer who unfortunately undercut himself with his fictional creations (self-inflicted wounds... always the most painful). Too bad. Passages of this book are brilliant. All in all not a bad look into the amazing life of our 40th president.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning success
Review: It's not an easy book to read, and it takes powerful concentration to discern the fact from the fiction. While "Dutch" certainly cannot be considered the definitive biography of Reagan, it is a page-turner and a delight.
Rating:
Summary: Views expressed simply cannot be serious. Right, Eddie?
Review: For good or ill, Ronald Reagan changed history. And Edmund Morris is jealous as hell. He can't understand how or why a simple man like Reagan could have reached the pinnacle of world power while infinitely superior Edmund can only make it so high up the bestseller list. To set this cosmic accident right he has produced Dutch, an all but unreadable memoir-appreciation-portrait-biography of the president. Edmund's strategy is two-fold: to prove Reagan is an idiot and to prove he is a genius. Ronald Reagan is certainly no genius. Yet Morris insists on seeing him as a complete moron. Uneducated, unaware, empty, emotionally stunted without a single a notion in his head that isn't reactionary and wrong. The truth is that Reagan is sincere. He has a set of core beliefs that explain everything he says and does. I am not defending or apologizing for his policies, I state only that comprehending them is no trick given the limpid context of Reagan's (such as it is) mind. Of all the names you can call Reagan, complex isn't one of them. I quote Morris here and ask him what he doesn't understand. "When he expresses views simply and declaratively, they should nevertheless be taken seriously, because the represent core philosophy. God wrote the Bible and the Bible condones capital punishment. 'Sodomy' is a sin. However, homosexuals have a Constitutional right to teach in public schools. Property is sacrosanct; so is privacy. Men may bear arms. Women are superior to men, therefore equal rights will downgrade them. Art should affirm moral values. Hard work is mandatory, boredom impermissible. Charity begins at home. Communism is evil because it saps the individual will. 'When men fail to drive toward a goal or purpose, but only drift, the drift is always toward barbarism.'" There's Reagan, plain as day. Anyone can trace the origin of these middleclass tenets and it is just as easy to understand how they lead to his decisions as president. Many Americans think exactly the same way (you probably agree with some of it) and see no contradictions. So Edmund, how is Reagan inscrutable? Simultaneously, while proving Dutch is a dunderhead, Edmund makes the case for his own superiority by presenting his Ronnie to us in a complex hybrid of novel and biography. And all rendered in the most exquisitely wrought prose. Every mean spirited sentence a Rococo marvel. Views expressed simply and declaratively cannot be taken seriously. I don't doubt the authenticity of the research or the reporting, I don't have any argument with the fictional memoir genre (Margaret George is fabulous. I would never doubt the integrity of her study), but Dutch is unreadable. A confusing hyperstyled mess that wears its agenda on its sleeve. Reagan did great things for the nation and hurt millions of people, but he is not enigmatic. He deserves a book as straightforward and readable as he was.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but brilliant
Review: The controversy concerning the insertion of fictional characters in Dutch is an interesting one and reminds me of a couple of quotes: "LISTEN! HERE IS A STORY OF FACT AND FICTION, THE TWO ARE ALMOST ALIKE, YOU'LL NOT BE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THEM. LISTEN! TO THE RUMBLE OF THE GROUND AS IT SHAKES BENEATH YOU IN THE REMOTE DISTANCE. LISTEN! TO ANOTHER TIME. YOU ARE LISTENING, PERHAPS, FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY ..." and: "Fact can never be written about it. The only fact there is, is the here and now. After that any attempt at capturing it becomes fiction." Well, whatever. I feel that Edmund Morris made a mistake in introducing elements of fictional characters into Dutch simply because this aspect jars one into confusion at inopportune moments in the book. For me it marred the supposed reality of the biography. Authorial gymnastics is fine if it works, but here unfortunately it doesn't. A celestial type narrator would have made more sense. Also, Morris uses the fictional device as a tool to make sarcastic digs at Reagan. For instance, Morris plays a much older self and introduces Gavin, his son, and uses him as a mouthpiece for heavier criticism or opinions. The writing itself leans towards an English style rather than American, adopting an understated narrative with snide humour which the English are so keen on. Morris himself sounds like an Englishman on TV, but apparently has lived in the US since 1968, was born in Kenya, educated in Nairobi and South Africa, then worked for a number of years in London, or is this fiction? I wouldn't call Dutch a nasty work out to insult Ronald Reagan, rather it is a complimentary one. In fact he comes out of it as quite a character having achieved much. After all it was Reagan's facade and human failings that actually gave back America its much needed self-esteem, as did Margaret Thatcher for Britain. No matter what one says about either of them now they at least managed that. And however Ronald Reagan conducted himself before and during his presidency this book makes it patently clear that his cardboard image was not the real Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan had a mastery about him and he had to work hard for it, for America ... and of course for himself. Although the book is long, in my mind it's not long enough. There are several gaps in time, the Vietnam years and during the Carter era being examples. I wanted a blow by blow account of what Reagan was up to during these periods and what his thought were. All right then, was the book enjoyable? Raaather, damn fine piece of work which helps the layman to understand the workings of Ronald Reagan better than any book I've read thus far, and this is my fourth. So, on reflection Dutch by Edmund Morris might be flawed but nonetheless a brilliant book.
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