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Summary: Modern Mythmaking
Review: In this ironic post-modern culture of ours, it is not easy to present extraordinary leadership without being ridiculed for the sacrilige of daring to even consider that perfect leadership can exist. We are so skeptical of our surroundings today that reading about the lives of politicians inevitably induces that ironic smile. And we can't seem to believe that there can be good and honest people and perfect leaders among us. Story of the cherry tree is a banal reminder of our younger and more innocent days. We feel like sophisticates who can see thru the lies of politicians, and we must also feel this particular politician, Ronald Reagan, can be no different than any other. I have read many biographies of Ronald Reagan. And even though i may not be old enough to have seen him in person, i have witnessed his affable charm and aboveboard leadership on the media. And from what i can tell he is a person who lives by the media. Not many of our devoted academicians can appreciate this, but his qualities do not come out without the help of storytelling. Like many of the stories he has told over the years, or like some street corner gossip, real value of his personality does not exude from detached, third-hand accounts of his staff-meetings, or from the barrage of statistic and charts we are constantly subjected to by his detractors. Real Reagan is to be seen from a distance as he is told by a contemporary, or a narrator of his story, as he strides across decades and conquers hearts of lovesick moviegoers and admirers, just as he would have liked it. I think Morris has done a superb job in coveying this side of Reagan: always elusive, yet loveable and superficially genuine. This book is a great read about that ordinary man from the heartland who became an extraordinary leader.
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Summary: New concept, but it works!
Review: I don't know what book the reader(?) from Dallas was reading, but this is classic biography. The concept of a fictional character, among other new approaches, does not diminish Reagan the man, or Reagan the icon. He took a leap of fate on this one, but he landed on his feet. Excellent work.
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Summary: extremely disappointed
Review: It is a literary trajedy that Morris squandered the opportunity to do a thorough historical biography on this interesting President. The book is poorly organized, difficult to follow and demonstrates Morris' obvious contempt for Reagan, his family and his country. I have anxiously awaited this book. I am so disappointed.
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Summary: Edmund Morris is a very cool guy.
Review: There are many good biographers but none as good as Edmund Morris. Morris will later be though to be innovative and inteligent, savvy and mold breaking
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Summary: Morris as fugitive in the Land of Lost Things
Review: Having just hastily completed Dutch, I have concluded that as biography, the book is a catastrophic failure. But of the magnitude and with the brilliance of a supernova. Arguably, this book represents the literary achievement of the year, if not the decade. Morris, as cognitive exhibitionist, exposes the deficiencies of his considerable talent in a virtually masochistic revelry. But in so doing, reaches holistic levels of authorial acumen, that leave one nearly breathless. Never has the corruption of history with the vicissitudes of the novel proved so sublime and concurrently, capriciously vain. He commits virtually every error about his subject he warns against from the prologue hence. But his evident self-awareness of his follies, make even willful obfuscations of evidence, and they are indeed pervasive and substantial, somewhat directionally instructive. Yet, his recurrent, often subtle, apologia that perhaps he is "looking for something that is not there" remains unconvincing. If this book represents yet another desperate failure in the "search" for Reagan, perhaps we had best resign ourselves to the bitter reality that the author of the definitive biography, lives in a generation as yet unborn. Meanwhile, of all the failures, Morris sets a signal enviable standard for the elusive titan, that we shall not soon see outdone. Don't miss it.
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Summary: The Orson Welles Approach to Narrative
Review: In Barbara Leaming's biography of Orson Welles, he encouraged her, during an interview, to seek a different way to tell his story. In Welles' view, that was a way to uncover new truths. In the case of "Dutch", Morris has tried something pays off. The book is readable, it's different, and it reveals new information. It has also shown how envious, weak and traditional some TV pundits are. I have heard one woman say, while grimacing theatrically, that if she had had the access, the time and the subject, she would have turned in a great book. That is like hearing people testify that if they had been born under different circumstances, they would be rich and powerful. This is a decent book that's fun to read.
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Summary: Completely unfounded rhetoric
Review: The messages listed in the pages of this book are unfounded rhetoric and nothing more. Morris is your typically pompous Brit who has successfully pulled together a book based upon peer speculation. Don't waste your money on this book.
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Summary: "What is truth?, Is this a biography or a work of fiction
Review: Readers interested in a biography of Ronald Reagan should look elsewhere. It is disappointing given Mr. Morris' excellent book on Teddy Roosevelt to see him squander 10 years on this effort. It is almost impossible to tell what is true and what is imagined about Reagan in this book - who are real people and who are imagined characters - is the Reagan he portrays real or the creation of his own imagination?. Did a young Ronald Reagan actually tell someone he had rescued from drowning that he was "just another notch on the log" where he recorded his saves? IF true, it is a very revealing statement; If not it is a terrible lie to tell in the name of biography. Mr. Morris hardly gets to the complexities of this obviously gifted, deeply religious and ambitious man. What drove him? What made someone described as distant and lacking friends able to convince others to trust him with leadership positions beginning in high school?In the end, one regrets that Reagan did not look to someone less interested in art and more interested in history to write his authorized biography. We can only hope that Mr. Morris took good notes of his meeting with Reagan and others and will be honest enough to place them in the hands of a true historian. So many pages wasted on fiction that could have been devoted to the real subject. Shame on you Mr. Morris.
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Summary: Great insight!
Review: Most of the criticism towards this book has been by people who have not even read it. Things have been taken out of context, and used against Morris. It took me a little while to get into the grove, but when I did this was a great read. I felt at the end like I knew Reagan as well as anybody could. My first vote in a presidential election was for him, and although I grew to disagree with him politically, I feel like he was a good man and a President who had a vision for America and the world. Thanks, Mr. Morris for this volume.
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Summary: The best part is that Nancy hates it
Review: Ronald Reagan gets the biography he deserves
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