MO [Hardcover]

Maureen dean/ hays gorey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 1975

Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews Maureen Dean's experience of Watergate centers on what clothing to wear according to the configurations of the stars (though she says she doesn't exactly believe in astrology), and how a woman can spend time alone with her increasingly preoccupied, sleepless, and near-alcoholic husband. It is the extreme ""Penelope"" view. One she regrets in hindsight, for Maureen thinks the Watergate cover-up could never have become so dense if only the Nixon men had confided in their--presumably more moral--wives. As it was, what else was there for her to do but worry about knit dresses as she followed the incommunicado John Dean from Key Biscayne to San Clemente to Las Vegas to Camp David on the peregrinations that were supposed to save a government but finally toppled it? No one in politics talked to her, except politely, as a duty, or crudely, as a tomato; the power sincerely bores her; she thinks the pomp is childish--she'd rather be alone with her husband. Her book is actually a love paean to John Dean whom Mo sees as witty, supportive, loving and principled (we have to take it on faith since in this busy period he was rarely around); the ""collapsing world"" she is forever talking about is her home and expectations, not the country which she's glad is purged of Nixon. It is a sentimental book by the unliberated housewife, but then, bourgeois sentiment may be a better emotion than the lust for power among those who ran the country: we cannot depend on nightwatchmen with astute eyes to catch all our criminals.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 7, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671221612
• ISBN-13: 978-0671221614
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,444,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Relic For One's Watergate Library, September 25, 2002

By 

J. Reynolds (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MO (Hardcover)

This little book is a must-have for anyone who joined the national Watergate fan club immediately after the scandal broke in the early 1970s. Maureen Dean's account, speckled delightfully with detailed descriptions of the clothing/accessories other Watergate women are wearing, is comically young-minded. Even so, its emanations form an illuminating penumbra (if that's possible) that reveals the spirit of the Nixon White House; a good example is the style of the fake-serious interoffice memo which John Dean submitted to Haldeman asking for time off to marry Mo.

An excellent companion piece to this book is "Silent Coup," which adduces other, darker facets of John's and Mo's relationship. Read "Mo" first, while you're still in the mood for levity.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Easy Reading - Take with more than a grain of salt, July 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: MO (Hardcover)

John Dean's many enemies didn't have to worry about discrediting him - his wife takes care of it in her self serving memoir.
John Dean is Mo's third husband. When they first met he didn't bother telling her that he was still married to a wife he later divorced and throughout the book he treats her like dirt. Their falling in love is described in a sickeningly fairy tale way. And it only gets better. Mo does let John have his say and attack his enemies through her book - She hates whoever he hates so there is a repeat of the pettiness in blind ambition, particularly the attacks on John Ehrlichman and Jeb Magruder.
I like this book because it is so ridiculous that it is humerous.