My Life: The Early Years (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Bill Clinton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"By a generous measure, the richest American presidential autobiography–no other book tells us as vividly or fully what it is like to be president of the United States.... And he can write.” --Larry McMurtry, The New York Times Book Review

“My Life is, without question, the best written U.S. presidential tome of all time.”  --Douglas Brinkley, Financial Times

“A hell of a good story.” --Frank McCourt, Entertainment Weekly

“It’s an almost voluptuous pleasure to read Clinton when he’s recounting and analyzing a political race or a legislative battle, whether it’s one of his own or somebody else’s.” —The New Yorker

“Consistently fascinating.” --The Seattle Times

“Clinton talks with disarming frankness [and] writes with grace and fluidity. . . . He is also a born storyteller.” --The New Republic

“Might just be the perfect representation of the man himself.” --The Plain Dealer

“Clinton has many tales to tell, particularly a rich, sometimes moving account of his years before the public life, fit for future analytical historians and biographers. . . . The personal and the political are intertwined. . . . Clinton’s story very much reflects the man we know.” --The Nation

“He manages to create the distinct impression that he is sitting in the living room talking to the reader. . . . Anyone who is geninely interested in American politics will find his insights and anecdotes fascinating. . . . The book helps to elucidate the question of ‘how he did it.’ ” --Deseret Morning News

“It’s a saga worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, a rags-to-riches tale full of the stuff of human frailty, with a cast of hundreds, complete with low-life villians and high-minded heroes and, as such stories require, an upbeat ending. . . . The 1990s come to life once again as a time of uncommon tumult and riveting personalities. . . . The personalities on parade are as vivid as the events.” --Newark Star-Ledger

“ Tremendously interesting and entertaining. . . . Clinton’s is a truly American story to which the average person can relate. . . . Future politicians will find it a must-read, and average Americans will identify with the highs and lows we all experience as we make our way through life.” --Chattanooga Times Free Press

“Takes readers through a strong account of the achievements and failures of his administrattion. . . . No other presidential memoir is likely to be so lively. . . . Bill Clinton is hard to dismiss, and so is an account of his extraordinary life.” -- The Tennessean

“A reading of MyLife is a necessity for lovers of good autobiograpy. It reads like a down-home history of a life and, thus, anchors Clinton as a superb storyteller. . . . Candid. . . . Honest. . . . Stimulating.” --Huntsville Times


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Description

President Bill Clinton’s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public.

It shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House—a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, working as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, becoming part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney general, and governor.

We see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political life.

We come to understand the emotional pressures of his youth—born after his father’s death; caught in the dysfunctional relationship between his feisty, nurturing mother and his abusive stepfather, whom he never ceased to love and whose name he took; drawn to the brilliant, compelling Hillary Rodham, whom he was determined to marry; passionately devoted, from her infancy, to their daughter, Chelsea, and to the entire experience of fatherhood; slowly and painfully beginning to comprehend how his early denial of pain led him at times into damaging patterns of behavior.

President Clinton’s book is also the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written—encompassing not only the high points and crises but the way the presidency actually works: the day-to-day bombardment of problems, personalities, conflicts, setbacks, achievements.

It is a testament to the positive impact on America and on the world of his work and his ideals.

It is the gripping account of a president under concerted and unrelenting assault orchestrated by his enemies on the Far Right, and how he survived and prevailed.

It is a treasury of moments caught alive, among them:

• The ten-year-old boy watching the national political conventions on his family’s new (and first) television set.

• The young candidate looking for votes in the Arkansas hills and the local seer who tells him, “Anybody who would campaign at a beer joint in Joiner at midnight on Saturday night deserves to carry one box. . . . You’ll win here. But it’ll be the only damn place you win in this county.” (He was right on both counts.)

• The roller-coaster ride of the 1992 campaign.

• The extraordinarily frank exchanges with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole.

• The delicate manipulation needed to convince Rabin and Arafat to shake hands for the camera while keeping Arafat from kissing Rabin.

• The cost, both public and private, of the scandal that threatened the presidency.

Here is the life of a great national and international figure, revealed with all his talents and contradictions, told openly, directly, in his own completely recognizable voice. A unique book by a unique American.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400096715
• ISBN-13: 978-1400096718
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #718,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Boon for Historians, August 3, 2005

By	B. Sinnott - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Presidents write for history. When having to produce dozens of papers on political figures, one comes to treasure those apparently trivial incidents that seem to so annoy some of your reviewers. Biographies are judged according to their richness of detail, and this one deserves its excellent professional literary reviews. An easy story-telling style is frosting-on-the-cake of this presidential account that will be highly valued by history, if not by contemporary political opponents.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Life -- Bill Clinton, July 26, 2005

By	PL (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

It was an insightful, warm, down-to-earth, and honest telling of the story of the life (so far) of one of the most intelligent and human of all of our Presidents. It was also a wonderful political history of the times in which he lived.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not well-done at all, June 13, 2005

By	Jim (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews

This book is titled "The Early Years" and stops just before the inaugural festivities in 1993. Having skimmed that later material in the full-length edition of this book, I would describe that as "Here's my story and I'm sticking to it." But the half in this book has less need for Clinton to cling to his usual talking points about his innocence, since it covers his growing up, schooling, and gubernatorial career. Unfortunately, instead of being sunk by Clinton's avoidance of responsibility, this part is sunk by another fault of his: cheap talk with little payout.

By that, I mean that Clinton takes his sweet time going over every little item in his life, but often with no real reason to. Here's an example: he says, "First I went to x. It was great. I got lost on the subway but a nice man helped me find the way. He said something I'll always remember: watch the signs. What earthy wisdom." Obviously this is made up for effect, but it is like that: Clinton has no editing ability to tell him when to expound upon a subject and when to cut to the chase and get to the point. If he did, he'd find there often is little or no point. Many of the asides he takes are 1. about other people and of no significance (apparently Clinton just wanted to give all his buddies some face time) and 2. not even very funny or interesting. But they come at a relentless pace: not very good stories about people you don't know or care about. So it is that Clinton must relate something bad that happened to his Boys State friend, or repeat some complaint one of his professors once shared, and so on.

The book is padded out with this kind of material. And when there's an important event, like the RFK killing, does Clinton only go on if he has something to add? Nope. He'll say, "My friend woke me and told me." Thanks for that scintillating story. It would have been ok if he'd actually had something to relate, but instead he only recites the details of the funeral (and the circumstances of the shooting - "A disgruntled Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan shot him as he was walking through the kitchen") as if we never heard of it. So it is that he tells us about the bombing halt, and a whole slew of other events as they occur, in much greater detail than is necessary, as if we all live in caves. My point is that instead of saying how these events impacted him personally and are relevant to the story (and if they aren't, passing them over), Clinton just works his way through describing everything that happened between 1948 and 1993, without regard to any larger theme or connection with his subject (himself).

Even when he is governor and there is more substance to pass on, Clinton still can't resist telling us that thing that once happened to a friend of his while they were out in some rural county getting ready to start campaigning. And trust me, the thing that happened is never very funny or insightful. This helps explain why Clinton's presidential jokes were so bad: he doesn't know a good story from a bad one, but talks anyway because hell, that's what you do in Arkansas. Sadly, this makes his book pretty annoying.

All this could have been cut to bring out the real story. Doing it could have reduced this portion of the book by 200 pages. But instead you have to wade through a lot to get to it.

One other flaw: the power of biography is starting with a simple story of grandparents or something and ending up with someone who, for example, won WWII. But there is no building upsweep here, because Clinton keeps cutting in to say things like, "When I was president, I went to his funeral. I'll always remember how he loaned me 25 cents that day" or some other pointless thing that ruins the flow. Either that, or he disposes of people in one fell swoop: Jocelyn Elders gets introduced as an Arkansas health appointee, then Bill tells us why he let her go in 1994, then it's back to the rest of 1989. Proper storytelling structure it's not.

The best presidential memoir I've read is Nixon's (I've read LBJ's, Ford's, Carter's, and what Bush has written). Nixon knew how to be relevant. Clinton doesn't.