A Full Life

May 18, 2015
While there’s no gainsaying Carter’s active and selfless post–White House life, this uneven volume is largely a superficial treatment of events and personalities covered elsewhere in more depth, including by the former president himself. Readers unfamiliar with his almost 30 other books may find something new, but even they are likely to be frustrated by passing references to major life events. How did a young Carter feel when his close friend in the Navy killed himself after a hazing? What led him to fall in love instantly with his future wife, Rosalynn? Why was a weekend with a dying Hubert Humphrey among the most “interesting” of his life? Carter doesn’t say. He also seems to credit the successful passage of the 1978 Camp David Accords, perhaps his most significant presidential achievement, to his fortuitous decision to make a thoughtful gesture to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s grandchildren. Carter’s rise from poverty to the most powerful office in the world is inspiring, but this book, complete with average-at-best poetry and artwork, reads more like a vanity project than a lasting source of inspiration and information. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit.

June 15, 2015

On the occasion of Carter's 90th birthday, the 39th U.S. president and Nobel laureate (A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power) delivers a memoir that reads like two separate books. The first five chapters provide insights into Carter's upbringing and the events that shaped his life until he and his family arrived at the White House in 1977. Especially fascinating is the author's account of his service in the navy and the difficulties that his family faced, including living in a housing project in the mid-1950s. Chapter six offers vignettes on political issues during his presidency. While one would expect Carter's musings on topics such as the Iranian hostage crisis, his commentary on events such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the return of a crown to Hungary seem extraneous. The last chapter focuses on Carter's thoughts about current issues. Even though some are germane, others, such as his paragraph on a clairvoyant who aided him in finding missing documents, make it somewhat difficult to take him seriously. VERDICT Appropriate for lay readers interested in Carter's place in the history of the presidency.--John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

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