The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush [Hardcover]

Ann Gerhart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2004

Laura Bush is arguably the most popular figure in the Bush White House. Even the President's detractors would not hesitate to describe the First Lady as utterly sincere and devoted to family and country, whether she is advocating on behalf of education and libraries or comforting the nation in times of crisis.

Ann Gerhart of "The Washington Post "has covered Mrs. Bush since 2001, and no other reporter has interviewed the First Lady more often. Through this unparalleled access Gerhart has been able to uncover the woman behind the carefully maintained image. Far more than an uncomplicated maternal figure and dedicated wife, Laura Bush emerges as a complex and fascinating woman in her own right, who has composed a life of accomplishment for herself alongside her husband's tremendous ambitions.

"The Perfect Wife" tells the complete story from Mrs. Bush's upbringing to her whirlwind three-month courtship by George W. Bush and her role as a mother, wife, and public figure. An only child raised in a segregated and fiercely traditional West Texas town, she is less conservative than her husband and appealingly down-to-earth despite the extraordinary privileges of her position. Two tragedies have defined her: a car accident when she was seventeen and September 11, when she suddenly had to transform her job and take herself far more seriously. Ann Gerhart examines the First Lady's influences and motivations, reveals the depths to which her husband relies upon her, and assesses her achievements. Compelling and insightful, this is the first comprehensive account of a woman who has won the admiration of the nation and of the compromises and challenges that come with taking on the most examinedvolunteer job in the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The title of this carefully measured biography of First Lady Laura Bush can have an ironic double-meaning depending on which side of the political/sexual liberation divide one finds themselves. Compared with the driven Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton (predecessors whose level of public acceptance often seemed to vary in inverse proportion to their ambitions for themselves and their husbands), the former Laura Welch of Midland, Texas can often seem like a cipher. But the causes (education and literacy) she has quietly espoused from her White House pulpit have indeed been the driving passions of her life since her days as an SMU coed. Given the hyper-polarizing presidency of George W. Bush, veteran Washington Post Style writer Ann Gerhard is careful to walk a fine line between fact and wildly divergent public opinion--a task made even more challenging by her subject's natural reticence and aversion to overweening self-analysis. But neither does Gerhard shy away from personal tragedies (the death of a high school classmate caused by Laura running a stop sign) or her husband's snowballing controversies (alcohol, Harken, Air National Guard duty gap, economic and social policies, 9/11, Iraq) and the public foibles of their twin daughters. Gerhard portrays Laura as a woman of typical West Texas manners and reserve, yet one steely enough not to sacrifice her longstanding social concerns or sense of self amidst a modern political dynasty. In that sense she may well be her husband's better half. --Jerry McCulley

From Publishers Weekly

Gerhart's portrait of the first lady is much like the public perception of her: a pleasant, opaque woman and a conundrum. A schoolteacher with a master's degree in library science, Laura Bush is clearly intelligent and articulate. Yet despite her credentials and her husband's evident respect for her opinions, she appears, from this account, to have no influence on his education policies nor does she seem to want any. Her determination to be what Gerhart terms "an old-fashioned first lady" alternately fascinates and frustrates Gerhart, a Washington Post reporter who has been covering her since the 2001 inauguration. Both reactions are understandable. For all her research, Gerhart never answers the central question she posits: how did an independent, liberal (she voted for Eugene McCarthy) career woman who purposely chose to teach in a poor elementary school in Austin morph so successfully into a devoted wife whose life's ambition is to make sure her husband's world runs smoothly, even if it means subverting her own beliefs and desires? Laura Bush's submission is apparent in such observations by Gerhart: "I noticed how much more animated and commanding she was when acting solo. When she traveled with the president, she faded to the background." Then again, given how carefully Laura Bush guards her privacy and her feelings, it's doubtful anyone could have cracked that mystery. But Gerhart succeeds in steering clear of the "sneering and sniping" often directed at Laura Bush in this not unsympathetic probing of the first lady's mysteries.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743243838
• ISBN-13: 978-0743243834
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,572,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nobody's perfect but everyone's got a story!, May 10, 2004

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush (Hardcover)

Gerhart's book is neither a puff piece nor a hatchet job. Readers seeking either will be disappointed. Gerhart instead presents a balanced, factual account of Laura Bush. And if you read between the lines, you will realize she's more complex than she appears.

First, as other reviewers noted, the most astounding piece of Laura's history is her car accident at age seventeen. There's no evidence that she had been drinking, yet she mysteriously ran a very visible stop sign. Even more mysteriously, the city declined to prosecute. She didn't even get a traffic tickert for running a stop sign and smashing into a truck, instantly killing the driver. Later she realized she had killed a good friend.

I can't help wondering where Laura Welch (her maiden name) would be today if she had been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Would she have gone on become an SMU sorority girl? A teacher and librarian?
Maybe the real lesson isn't that Laura got away with something but that we shouldn't be too quick to punish someone for a one-time mistake, however tragic.

And while Laura never talks about the "accident," there must have been long-lasting impact. Did this experience contribute to her shy, self-effacing qualities?

Relatedly, we get a sense of the Bush family dyamics. In his younger days, Bush did his share of drinking and partying. Laura had memories of her tragic accident. when Twins Jenna and Barbara grow up to be self-absorbed, uncontrollable brats. An analyst would have a field day with this family.

And there's the unspoken question. How does Laura Bush, a smart woman with mostly liberal friends, separate her husband's political persona from her own values? She does what she can and doesn't even try to impinge on her husband's territory.

We also learn about Laura Bush's book programs, where she invites authors to read and contribute. Most authors, being liberals, are reluctant to accept, but soon they are won over by Laura's intellect. She's a real reader.

And she's hardly a doormat. Barbara Bush would be a formidable mother-in-law but Laura avoids yielding. Nor does she take the easy way out. Barbara's issue was literacy, so Laura makes it clear her approach will be different.

I'm reminded of stories of another big Texan president, Lyndon Johnson Indeed, Laura refers to Johnson when she compares herself to other first ladies. Like Laura, Lady Bird knew when to push and when to back off, and she retained her own integrity.

After reading the book, it's hard to see how Laura and George came together so successfuly. They're opposite in many ways. Gerhart hints of disagreement on key political issues. Laura reads; George doesn't. Laura is devoted to her children; George flew to Florida for a planned vacation while Jenna underwent an emergency appendectomy. In the end, Perfect Wife isn't about politics. It's about a family that, with less wealth and public scrutiny, might be termed dysfunctional.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, February 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush (Hardcover)

This book was fascinating. The Perfect Wife is well written, well researched, insightful and informative. Ann Gerhart is able to place Laura Bush in context for us; through every chapter she delineates how the personal and the public coexist within a complex person. Laura Bush seems stereotypical of a certain sort of southern woman, but as we know, stereotypes are confining in their lack of dimension. The Perfect Wife ably shows us how Laura Bush is not one-dimensional, rather, she is an intellectual surrounded with stacks of books at her side, she has had friends who are Democrats (and hippies, back in the day), she has known tragedy first-hand, and, like many wives and mothers, is at times annoyed by her spouse and offspring (but is too well-mannered to ever say so in public.) I loved this book - I never thought I could relate to a "first lady" (or a perfect wife... ) but after reading this, I'm rethinking many expectations.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nuanced and thoughtful, July 22, 2004

By 

Marjorie (Lafayette, US, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush (Hardcover)

I don't really understand why so many of the earlier reviews of this book are so negative. Apparently many admirers of Mrs. Bush want a portrait that will admit of no shadings of character at all. This is a nuanced and thoughtful book, not at all unfavorable to Mrs. Bush, if you read it with an open mind. Clearly Mrs. Bush has not had an easy or uncomplicated life; and clearly, also, she is a woman who does not let much of her inner life show. The vehicular manslaughter episode when she was 17, for instance, would be enough to irretrievably affect many people for their whole life. Mrs. Bush, however, managed to "move on," as they say, and within weeks to return to her high school routine and from that on to college. To do that takes a person capable of erecting some very powerful defenses. That Mrs. Gerhart is able to penetrate those defenses at all, and show us Mrs. Bush as a real person, with both strengths and flaws (rather than as the waving, smiling china doll which so many of her fans apparently prefer to see her as) is a credit to her as a writer.