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よく一緒に購入されている商品
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内容説明
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 Housea 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 youthborn 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 writtenencompassing 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.
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 Housea 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 youthborn 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 writtenencompassing 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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カスタマーレビュー
最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー
8 人中、7人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
形式:マスマーケット
現在、上巻を読んでます。そろそろ、やっとのことでヒラリーとの出会いに至る模様。
読み始めてまず思ったのは、非常にhonestに書いているなーという点。そして幼少期から中高を経て大学へ、という過程で、よくまあこんなに多くの人々と出会い、それを忘れることなく、自分の糧としてきたなあ、ということ。あまりに多くの人名が出てくるので、くらくらします。クリントン、基本的に人間が好きなのですね。
意外にも内省的、悪く言えばウダウダしたところもある文章からは、合衆国元大統領というよりは、一人の人間としての悩みがセキララに伝わってきます。
激動の60年代に多感な思春期を過ごし、どんどん政治にのめりこんでいく個人的なプロセスが、ベトナム戦争がらみのリアルなUSポリティカルヒストリーとリンク。ケネディ暗殺、キング牧師の暗殺、反戦運動の盛り上がり…と、アメリカ現代史の“熱い季節”を実際に体験しているような気分で読み進めることができる。
オックスフォードに留学しながらもベトナムへの召集がいつ来るかと恐々とし、ベトナム行きを合法的に避けた後、今度は自分が意気地なしではないかと不安になる、そんな心理が手に取るように描かれているのも秀逸。冷戦時代のモスクワ等、ヨーロッパ各国へ旅するくだりも興味深い。
上巻200ページ読んだところで、下巻とCDまで注文してしまった。アマゾンのページでCDの一部をオーディオクリップで試聴できる。かなり早口だが、一度読んだところはだいたい聞き取れるかな。
~以上、中間報告。
早く読み終わらないとハリポタ新作に割り込まれてしまうー！下巻は1ハリポタ後になる予定（笑。
Amazon.com で最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー (beta)
Amazon.com:
13件のカスタマーレビュー
4 人中、4人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
A Boon for Historians
2005/8/4
形式:マスマーケット
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.
17 人中、12人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Not well-done at all
2005/6/14
形式:マスマーケット
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.
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.
4 人中、3人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
My Life -- Bill Clinton
2005/7/27
形式:マスマーケット
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.
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