My Father at 100 [Hardcover]

Ron Reagan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 18, 2011

A moving memoir of the beloved fortieth president of the United States, by his son.

February 6, 2011, is the one hundredth anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. To mark the occasion, Ron Reagan has written My Father at 100, an intimate look at the life of his father-one of the most popular presidents in American history-told from the perspective of someone who knew Ronald Reagan better than any adviser, friend, or colleague. As he grew up under his father's watchful gaze, he observed the very qualities that made the future president a powerful leader. Yet for all of their shared experiences of horseback rides and touch football games, there was much that Ron never knew about his father's past, and in My Father at 100, he sets out to understand this beloved, if often enigmatic, figure who turned his early tribulations into a stunning political career.

Since his death in 2004, President Reagan has been a galvanizing force that personifies the values of an older America and represents an important era in national history. Ron Reagan traces the sources of these values in his father's early years and offers a heartfelt portrait of a man and his country-and his personal memories of the president he knew as "Dad."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reagan's beautifully written memoir is a conflicted tribute to a distant, almost mythical figure. Though he admits to being "quite close as father and son," the younger Reagan also considered his father "warm yet remote" and "intensely private." The son fares well in his first book-length foray, telling a surprisingly detailed story of his ancestors, analyzing examples of his father's heroic exploits, and relating touching accounts of his final years. The author is more concerned with showing how his father found his way through the world as a young man than he is about pulling back the curtain on the father-son relationship, which is a pity. The few filial episodes he recounts are predictable tales of moderate adolescent rebellion. The writer's wife emerges as the one person who tries—and fails—to push Reagan to examine deeper feelings. However, resentment is never far from the surface; his father's criticisms and reliance on political confidants at his son's expense seem to sting. "You're my son, so I have to love you. But sometimes you make it very hard to like you," his father once said, a passing reference that reveals more about the father-son relationship than Reagan dares share directly. (Jan.)
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Review

“A deeply felt memoir." 

(-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times )

“A first-person view of some of the most dramatic moments in the life of the 40th president.”

(-Doug Wead, The Washington Post ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (January 18, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670022594
• ISBN-13: 978-0670022595
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Reagan, Ronald

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Journey through Reagan's Childhood January 31, 2011

By James Hiller TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Recently, at a debate among people desiring to be Republican Party chair, a question was asked about their role models. The question was formulated something like this, "Besides Ronald Reagan, who is your....". The showed, glaringly and obviously so, how much Ronald Reagan is revered in the Republican Party (more like a god), as well as respect across the country. Reagan was the first president I voted for at the tender age of 18, and despite my driftward left in my political thoughts, Reagan still holds an allure to me. Perhaps it was What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era that resonated with me, among other books that I've read. But after reading Ron Reagan's deeply moving memoir on his father, "My Father at 100", it all comes back to the man.

Ron Reagan's book is a celebration of the life of his father. Part memoir, part travelogue, his book is a recounting of the early life of Reagan, from the time he was born up until his final year in college at Eureka. Reagan could have retold the story (as other books have done), but one thing that makes this book special is that he actually travels to these places he writes about. When discussing Reagan's birthplace, he visits the museum that is there now. When retelling Reagan's story about finding his father passed out drunk on a porch in Dixon, Illinois, Reagan goes there as well.

This pairing is brilliant. It allows Reagan to illustrate the biographical information with touching reflections about being there. In fact, every place he writes about comes alive because of this writing I frequently found myself shuffling to my compuer to look up some of these places to see them for myself. Ron Reagan also painstakingly describes pictures from his father's childhood, which again I tried to find on the internet.

Combined, the story he unfurls of the early years of the president is completely real and touching. Ron fully admits that his father, albeit caring, loving, and present, was hard to get to know. Yet I found Reagan's genuineness shines through the book at every page. After finishing the story, I truly felt as if I spent time with the president.

Reagan particularly spends a lot of time writing about the parents and grandparents of Reagan. In a normal biography, I often read this section lightly, waiting to get to the "star". Not in this case. I was fascinated by Ron Reagan's detail of his lineage, from Ireland to the United States. Perhaps it's his writing style, fluid, effortless, that drew me in. It's beautiful.

In fact, when times comes for Ron to talk about the end of his father's life, his mind ravaged by disease, the telling is handled so gently and honestly, I felt as if I were there.

It's actually a travesty when the media takes one small part of a book, blares it across the world, as if that one piece represented the entire book. Ron Reagan does think his father started showing symptoms of Alzheimer's before he left office. Rightwing blowhards will trash the entire book (as is evidenced also on Amazon) merely because of his son's conjecture. Sadly, they are also trashing quite a beautiful, honorable book that brings a light and life to Reagan.

This book is quite a keeper. This progressive voter is going to keep it for quite a number of reasons, if only to revisit this remarkable book from time to time, as a memory of a time long passed, and of a man who thought the best of our country.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An easy man to love, but a hard man to know. March 21, 2011

By Steven Schwartz VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This book surprised me. I'd never been particularly impressed by Ron Reagan before, and least on the air, but his memoir has shown me that he is one beautiful writer.

I always enjoyed Ronald Reagan as a movie star, although his good pictures are few and far between. Nevertheless, you very rarely caught him Acting. Like Jimmy Stewart, he did the hard work of appearing natural. I always thought the Bonzo jokes both politically motivated and mean-spirited. I wish he had gotten the roles that would have allowed him to stay in the business, and I'm not just saying that because it would have kept him out of politics.

I should mention at this point that I'm a raging liberal, too liberal for most of the current sorry crop of Democrats. However, even when Reagan was in the White House, I never felt that he was evil or mean. I never suspected his dedication to doing good for the country and for the world.

However, he puzzled me. There was a public face always on display that kept glimpses of the inner man at bay. I found him enigmatic, behind a mask of openness. Even someone as acute a reader of character as Edwin Morris was flummoxed. His "fictionalizations" in the bio Dutch struck me as the product of pure frustration and mystification.

Ron Reagan admits he doesn't completely understand his father, although he loves his father and is sure his father loved his family. He also doesn't dismiss his father as a goof or an idiot. He respects his dad, as well as loves him. He points out his father's major achievements in office, including a world-altering diplomatic rapprochement to the former Soviet Union without sacrificing principle or acquiring the cynical smell of Realpolitik.

The son finds his entry into understanding through his father's childhood and adolescence. If he is ever going to comprehend his father, he needs to start there. The child of a strained marriage, including a grandfather who drank, Ronald Reagan wanted to be a hero and did his best to live according to his model -- lifeguard, union head, politician -- rather than taking the easier way of pure image. He had his flaws, like everybody else, notably an ability to disregard the unpleasant -- for others, as much as himself. Here was a man who wanted to save everybody, or as many as he could from trouble. His boyhood job as a lifeguard becomes for his son emblematic.

I don't really understand the controversy howling from the right about this book. President Reagan didn't walk on water, after all. His son has written a loving, perceptive memoir on very difficult subjects -- his father and the relations between fathers and sons, among them. The uproar over Ron's speculation that his father may have had the onset of Alzheimer's in office not only shows immense ignorance of the progress of the disease, but ignores the author's strong emphases on his father's performance. As he notes, Reagan's illness had as much effect on his Presidency as Kennedy's Addison's and Lincoln's depression had on theirs. In that regard, Ron Reagan focuses on accomplishments. Furthermore, even after Reagan was diagnosed (he had left office), he remained sharp for at least a couple of years.

I think this ultimately a more successful book than Morris's in its penetration of the President's psyche. Perhaps only Nancy Reagan could tell us more. I recommend it to everybody, regardless of political orientation.

33 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ron Jr is not his Dad, but he does tell a good story. February 1, 2011

By Marc Mest

Format:Hardcover

First, yes the Reagan kids all have a political point of view, and most of them are not conservatives. But lets face it, everyone seems to latch on to Reagan whenever they are trying to advance their politcal agenda, yet Ron Jr. has a valid point, would Reagan have endorsed any of these conservatives? I don't know, but Ron Jr. has a right to question whether his Dad would have backed half of the conservatives that throw his dad's name around.

That being said, I am a conservative and was around when Reagan was President.

Considering Ron Jr. is the child that was raised full time by his Dad, he does have a story to tell about his dad and his family. And it is an interesting story.

As Ron Jr. points out in this book, people think they know everything there is to know about his Dad, but even his family does not completely understand the man. And his family history.

Ron Jr.'s writing is intersting and it does provide insight into his family and his dad. Yes, he does have some political bones to pick, but with the public and not with his dad. Contrary to the press, this is no hatchet job on his dad.

Overall this is a tribute by a son, to his larger than life dad, and it is a great read.