The Obamas

Starred review from February 27, 2012
Barack Obama's rise from an unknown Illinois politician to President of the United States was nothing short of meteoricâan unprecedented career trajectory with equal amounts of unique opportunities and challenges. Here, New York Times correspondent Kantor mines her four-plus years of covering the President to craft a complex account of the Obamas' first years in the White House. Drawing from voluminous interviews with over two hundred staffers, friends, aides, cabinet members, and the Obamas themselves, Kantor deftly chronicles the public and private struggles of the First Family. Focusing more on the internal politics than a rote recital of policy changes and key events, her book examines how the couple navigated the Presidency, the White House, and Washington society. The Obamas' commitment to keeping things as normal as possible for their children was laudable, but as the couple soon found out, naïve and riddled with unforeseen political implications. What's more, according to Kantor, the couple's marital dynamicsâBarack as the calm, optimistic, focused leader who strove for collaboration, and Michelle as the skeptical perfectionist with little patience for political gamesmanshipâalso created internal and political tensions. This is a fascinating look at the intricate dynamics of an ordinary marriage, an unusual home, and an extraordinary presidency. B&W photos.

February 1, 2012
A gossipy but mostly meaty look inside the Obama White House, a place less unified than one might expect--or hope. New York Times Washington correspondent Kantor graduated to that position from the Arts & Leisure section, and it shows in her fascination with First Lady Michelle Obama's fashion sense, about which we read a great deal, good and bad--good that Mrs. Obama has a fashion sense, bad in the sense that expensive clothing in a time of economic hardship gives the president's enemies more fodder for complaining. Thus, after the midterms, "she still wore plenty of expensive labels, including designer gowns to formal evening events, but during the day there were more dresses from chain stores." No one could complain about a $34.95 dress, after all--though of course they could, since a vigorous anti-Obama contingent in Washington is doing all it can to keep the president from fulfilling his ambitions and finds fault in everything he does. Here Sen. Mitch McConnell becomes a notable heavy of the piece. The best parts of Kantor's book depict a White House beleaguered and harassed, a leader frustrated at being kept from pursuing what he had hoped would be a "post-partisan" style of governance. The book has already made news for its depiction of Mrs. Obama as a tough manager with a reputation for frostiness and impatience: "My staff worries a lot more about what the first lady thinks than they worry about what I think," she reports President Obama as saying by way of a lead-in to some memorable conflicts with the likes of Robert Gibbs and Rahm Emanuel. Yet, given both Michelle Obama's misgivings about the toll of political life on her family and the siege-fortress mood of the White House, her protective and decisive demeanor seems entirely understandable, especially given the president's complementary "elusive, introverted" manner. If only the "wrath of Michelle," as it's known, is the worst thing the staffers have to face. It's not, though, and Kantor's fly-on-the-wall view makes illuminating reading for an election year.

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June 15, 2011

Washington correspondent for the New York Times, as well as its Arts & Leisure editor, Kantor would seem to have both the knowledge and the sensibility to portray the President and the First Lady as they try to lead a normal life and raise their kids in a house that can't quite feel like home. Kantor's cover story on the Obamas' marriage for the New York Times Magazine was a big hit. So, not a political treatise but no powder-puff job either.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.