A Journey: My Political Life [ラフカット] [ハードカバー]

As Tony Blair said it at the beginning of the book, this is not a memoir; it is a reflection of history that unravelled around him mainly during the time of his prime ministership. Readers may have extremely different political views and a review risks appearing taking one side or another. My review is not about Tony Blair the politician, but Tony Blair the writer. I am only judging the book from the point of view of the quality of writing describing personal development, political views, exposure to events and people packed in one single volume. My conclusion is if you can put the politics aside, it is a great read.

Undeniably, Tony is a master of political thinking. He is the longest serving Labour Prime Minister after all. You will find in this book a superb analysis of leadership when he writes about the period before the election in 1992. He is a genius when it comes to understanding the change in the public mood and society, although not without fault, as history has shown. An interesting read is the analysis of Labour philosophy, its political agenda, the structure of the voters who favoured Labour, and who didn't, the meaning of "working class" in the 80's (the philosophical essence of the change to New Labour could be summarised in his words: "I hate class. I love aspiration"), the thinking system of some of the Labour main public figures.

The book is personal story narrated in a style that changes throughout the book. It can be crisp and clear, but it can be convoluted, dragging the argument on and on. It gives away a schism between two sides which contradict themselves: the intense, ambitious political man who has the point blank desire to get the power ("it is an extraordinary feeling...you can achieve something beyond the ordinary") and the person accepting the destiny that gives him the sceptre of that power. The sense of destiny appears sometimes as if he did it because he had to; it is almost a justification for some difficult choices.

One of the aspects I liked about the book is its authenticity. Tony Blair seems to be genuine; he is not chasing elegance and righteousness and sometimes he becomes so involved with the subject to the point where he almost forgets he is addressing to a reader. He would know when is opinion is controversial and accept many others have opposite opinions. He leaves the door open for others' interpretation of error on his behalf. He knows the public is judging him. His only defence is personal belief in what he considers his duty.

He can be very funny at times. The story of his "freaking" experience at the Balmoral Castle with the royal family when the valet asked if he wanted him to "draw the bath" made me laugh out loud. I have the impression he enjoyed working on this book; except probably when he talks about Gordon Brown.

He describes the PMQ (Prime Minister Question) times as "discombobulating, nail-biting, bowel-moving, terror-inspiring, courage-draining experience in my prime ministerial life, without question". And many other subjects are treated with the same deliberate style, the Northern Ireland peace deal, Iraq, relationship with US, etc.

There is one thread though that goes through the book, something that causes him quite a discomfort: his relationship with Gordon Brown (GB as he refers to him sometimes). This is an aspect of his life that has no definite closure and he is not hundred percent comfortable talking about it, but he talks.

I can bet London on a brick on that you will find at least on one occasion something intriguing, interesting and fascinating somewhere in this book that will surprise you. I will not give any example of that for two reasons: I don't want to give away details of the book and because of many of the controversies and huge amount of publicity that followed Tony Blair during this political life, what is interesting, intriguing, interesting and fascinating depends entirely on the reader's attitude and political belief.

First my objective analysis: Blair was Labor leader in 1994, and rode that position to become Prime minister in 1997 with the biggest victory in Labor's history. The book contains 22 chapters covering the period 1997 to 2007. There is a chapter dealing with 2007 - 2010 which are issues that are current and subsequent to his service as Prime Minister. As you know all biography is subjective and selective, and this book is no less so than others. The book's most interesting chapters are:

3) New Labor

5) Princess Diane

6) Peace in Northern Ireland

8) Kosovo

12) 9/11 "Shoulder to Shoulder"

My Subjective Analysis": Tony Blair can write, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You know an author is at the very top of his form when he can put together sentences in such a way that you say to yourself, if I had a month to think about it, I don't think I could have put it any better.

An example is in the introduction, where Blair states the American burden is that it wants to be loved, but knows it can't be. Love is given to nations with which we sympathize...powerful nations aren't loved...they have to be feared by their enemies.

Blair also seems to be excellent at understanding the world leaders that he developed extensive personal and long relationships with. This includes Vladimir Putin, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama. Listen in just a few words at what awaits you:

Bill Clinton - The Prime Minister found Clinton to be, "The most formidable politician I ever met, actually a brilliant President. He made it at times look easy."

George W. Bush - Blair thought Bush was straight forward and direct. He says about Bush, "The stupidest misconception was that he was stupid" - great intuition, less about politics, more about he thought was right and wrong.

Barack Obama - This was a very interesting observation. "This is a man with steel in every part of him."

You will love his candid analysis of all the major players in the world. However as is true in most autobiographic materials, Blair is less candid about himself and his shortcomings. There is very little about his upbringing or what brought him to his political beliefs. Regarding Iraq he is unapologetic about leading his country to war when there were no weapons of mass destruction. It seems he is trying to sway history here, more than the current reader.

Blair also states that his interest in religion was greater than his interest in politics, but then tells us nothing about how his religious beliefs have impacted and shaped his political beliefs. All in all this is a GREAT READ, and I urge you to do so, if only to get a wonderful understanding of how a foreign leader who had an understanding of America in this time viewed our country through his own informed lens.

Blair will always be remembered as the man who brought the Labor Party into the 21st century by getting rid of the concept of nationalization, and let's disarm by ourselves. He also was quite eloquent in explaining our President's position on Iraq better than our President was. Small failing's aside, I think you will love reading this book, and thank you for reading this review.

Richard C. Stoyeck

Tony Blair's autobiography hits all the high points of his tenure and a few around it: Some brief background about Blair's fairly pedestrian middle class background; his rise to power in Labor including the timely death of one of his predecessors which allowed him to jump to leadership; his three elections and the many episodes that came between them such as Iraq, peace efforts in Ireland, National Health Service reform, and the millennium; and his long, somewhat tortured departure. A few observations:

1. Tony Blair never really had a friendship with Gordon Brown. Oh he says they were friends and the press has told us they were, but if you read between the lines they always viewed each other as competitors. Blair did not miss many opportunities to leapfrog over Brown in the party leadership or slap Brown down as PM. He then seems surprised when Brown does not treat him with total deference. I am sure he said something nice about Brown somewhere in the book, but I cannot recall where.

2. Blair is much more conservative than I thought. I always thought of Blair as a progressive to moderate who was muscular on national security. Blair tries to align himself with Bill Clinton as a third way type of centrist progressive. But other than climate change and a few platitudes towards progressive programs, Blair does not really have much patience for them. This really comes through with his criticism to the economic crisis that occurred once he was out of office, which he seems to believe the market could have solved. But throughout the book his description of "new labor" has a lot in common with the Republican Party in the United States. Oh I am sure I am overstating it, but I was really surprised by the way his positions came off.

3. Blair could not decide who his audience was. At times Blair does a good job of explaining things to us Americans but at other times names are flying by fast and furious and events and formalities that are likely common knowledge in the British system are a bit confusing. That is understandable given that he was the British PM and has no obligation to write for us uninformed Americans, just be prepared for it.

4. Blair needed an editor. The book rambles on a bit particularly in the section on Ireland (which brings me back to point 3, I did not have much context for it) and his "will he, won't he, when will he" departure. Blair also tends to describe people the same way. "Joe Smith was Joe Smith, as ever," never really saying too much about them, sometimes criticizing them, but assuring us that he still likes and respects them for some reason. I noticed it again and again.

5. Blair really liked George W. Bush. He also really liked Clinton, but he really gives a good defense of President Bush here including some of his lesser known but best policies such as support for Africa. Blair's relationships with the two US presidents he served with is interesting and I wonder if there is any president he would not have found a way to get along with. He did not think much of Reagan, though he was not PM then but praised Obama whose tenure began after his.

6. Blair wants to come back. He basically says it at the end but it is something that occurred to me as I was reading the book. Iraq prevents that for now, but this book's spirited defense and time may change the political calculus for Blair. Disraeli, Gladstone, and Churchill all had multiple runs at 10 Downing Street and I think Blair harbors that ambition too.

All in all, a good showing by one of the most influential political leaders of our times.