The Natural

Starred review from February 11, 2002
Klein may have set himself a formidable task when he decided to evaluate Bill Clinton's fractious presidency and his enigmatic personality without the camouflage of the fictitious characters that populated his bestselling Primary Colors, but he's more than up to it. This insightful, often funny book—which provides a serious and intelligent look at the successes and failures of the Clinton administration as well as an insider's view of the sometimes sordid, sometimes exhilarating political and personal battles that engaged the President—succeeds on every level. Clinton's positions on health care, affirmative action, NAFTA, welfare reform and foreign affairs are straightforwardly explained, and Klein's considerable knowledge and sophisticated understanding of the political arena add depth and breadth to the explanations. Klein doesn't—can't—ignore Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, of course, and he argues that Clinton's willingness to take such shocking risks demonstrates an intrinsic weakness of tragic proportions. But Klein is even more critical of the fanatical press that fed on the affair, and the Newt Gingrich–led Republican ideologues and their subsequent suicidal impeachment mission. Klein also provides brilliantly illuminating caricatures of the political players who swirled around Clinton. North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms is an "antediluvian Visigoth," consultant Dick Morris "a prohibitively bizarre human being," and Gingrich is an "American Mullah" and a "faux revolutionary who tried to turn democracy into war." There will be numerous books written about Clinton and his presidency, but they will be hard pressed to capture the public and private Clinton as well as this one. (Mar.)Forecast:Who won't want to pick up this careful analysis by one of the nation's foremost political observers? With the author's big name—and his subject's even bigger one—this is sure to be a big seller.

Starred review from February 1, 2002
The Lewinsky affair and parting-shot presidential pardons helped obscure President Clinton's achievements, notes Klein, who as Anonymous wrote the thinly veiled Clintonian novel, Primary Colors. Haynes Johnson's The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years (LJ 10/1/01) is a more substantial investigation, but Klein's provocative musings, based partly on three interviews with the former president, have the advantage of being written after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Clinton is not greatly faulted here for not hunting down Osama bin Laden because neither the public nor Congress would have tolerated a lengthy ground war during the Nineties. According to Klein, his major accomplishments saving the Democratic Party from possible extinction, rekindling an interest in public service, and improving the lives of America's poorest citizens were misunderstood, if not unrecognized, by a public bloated from a diet of scandal fed by a blood-lusting media. Arguably the best politician of his generation, Clinton was the inheritor, not the creator, of uncivil partisan battles, which began during the 1960s and metastasized 30 years later into the "Gingrichization of politics." Unfortunately, Clinton's unseemly behavior was an easy target for his enemies. Recommended for public libraries. Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2002
In his novel " Primary Colors" (1996), Klein offered a caricature of Bill Clinton that many took to be a true portrait of the man. But here he offers the real deal. Wisely, Klein leaves the mind-numbing details of Whitewater, Travelgate, and the Lewinsky affair to others. His is a Diogenesian quest to find out why things happened, not just the scandals but also the policy decisions that shaped both domestic and foreign landscapes. In the process, he manages to rediscover Clinton and to do so with a remarkable lack of psychobabble. His analysis goes way past reminding people of Clinton's promise and his penchant for pitfalls. He carefully re-creates the political world that Clinton stepped into, how he changed that world, and how he failed to change it, in part because of who he was but also because of the "smug, shallow serenity of his time." Writing close to the bone, Klein is in equal parts appreciative of Clinton's skills and horrified by his excesses, but above all, he makes readers see that there were no heroes during the Clinton years. Republicans, Democrats, the press, and the citizenry were all smaller than they should have been. As large as Greek tragedy, as small as a vaudeville skit, Clinton's story will be told many more times (including by both Clintons). No matter what comes later, though, this one has the ring of truth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)