Hillary's Choice: Amazon.de: Gail Sheehy: Englische Bücher

Amazon.co.uk

Vanity Fair writer Gail Sheehy's engrossing biography of Hillary Clinton is a refreshing departure from the political hit jobs that have appeared elsewhere in print. That's not to say Hillary's Choice is a pro-Clinton book--Hillary herself would probably bristle at reading it, and her husband ("The story of the Clinton presidency has always been the story of the Clinton marriage", writes Sheehy) comes off as a bright but demented cad. Yet Hillary's Choice is broadly sympathetic and often non-judgemental at crucial moments. Sheehy writes very little about public policy, but includes plenty of pop psychologising. She suggests that the president is a sex addict afflicted by what "a highly qualified mental health professional who works too close to the White House to be identified" calls "dissociative identities"--what used to be known as "multiple personalities . . . a sum of various identities that have been split off at some time in the past". And the president gets away with so much in his personal life because Hillary has become his unwitting enabler: "Every addict or alcoholic needs one. The enabler is usually an intimate of the addicted person who allows him to persist in self-destructive behaviour by making excuses or helping him avoid the consequences of his actions".

That describes Sheehy's Hillary perfectly: a woman apparently ignorant of her husband's several flings in the White House before Monica Lewinsky came along, and then wilfully deceived by the president's lies until just hours before his momentous grand-jury testimony. Theirs is a mother-son relationship in which true love must negotiate its way through astonishingly difficult periods. That's not a formula for how marriage ought to work, but it has nevertheless helped this ultimate power couple achieve enormous success. Hillary's Choice is full of on-the-record and background interviews, all assembled in an absorbing narrative. Writes Sheehy: "The saga of Bill and Hillary, with its echoes of Eleanor and Franklin, or Tracy and Hepburn with undertones of Bonnie and Clyde, is animated by melodrama, high passion, narrow escapes, and knock-down-drag-outs". And it comes alive in this biography of the most enigmatic woman of our time. --John J Miller -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Amazon.com

Vanity Fair writer Gail Sheehy's engrossing biography of Hillary Clinton is a refreshing departure from the political hit jobs that have appeared elsewhere in print. That's not to say Hillary's Choice is a pro-Clinton book--Hillary herself would probably bristle at reading it, and her husband ("The story of the Clinton presidency has always been the story of the Clinton marriage," writes Sheehy) comes off as a bright but demented cad. Yet Hillary's Choice is broadly sympathetic and often nonjudgmental at crucial moments. Sheehy writes very little about public policy, but includes plenty of pop psychologizing. She suggests that the president is a sex addict afflicted by what "a highly qualified mental health professional who works too close to the White House to be identified" calls "dissociative identities"--what used to be known as "multiple personalities ... a sum of various identities that have been split off at some time in the past." And the president gets away with so much in his personal life because Hillary has become his unwitting enabler: "Every addict or alcoholic needs one. The enabler is usually an intimate of the addicted person who allows him to persist in self-destructive behavior by making excuses or helping him avoid the consequences of his actions."

That describes Sheehy's Hillary perfectly: a woman apparently ignorant of her husband's several flings in the White House before Monica Lewinsky came along, and then willfully deceived by the president's lies until just hours before his momentous grand-jury testimony. Theirs is a mother-son relationship in which true love must negotiate its way through astonishingly difficult periods. That's not a formula for how marriage ought to work, but it has nevertheless helped this ultimate power couple achieve enormous success. Hillary's Choice is full of on-the-record and background interviews, all assembled in an absorbing narrative. Writes Sheehy: "The saga of Bill and Hillary, with its echoes of Eleanor and Franklin, or Tracy and Hepburn with undertones of Bonnie and Clyde, is animated by melodrama, high passion, narrow escapes, and knock-down-drag-outs." And it comes alive in this biography of the most enigmatic woman of our time. --John J. Miller -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

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High on speculation, low on substance 30. Juli 2000

Von twisesq

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Reading this book gave me an inside view of Bill & Hillary's childhood and college years, and certainly the presidency. I can't help but feel that some of the history was conjecture and speculation (don't try and tell me that the nurse who helped deliver Bill Clinton remembers the birth). But try as she might, Sheehy doesn't really tell us how Hillary dealt with Bill during the Monica saga - probably because she hasn't been able to do what a real biographer needs to do - find out the truth from the source. Hillary won't talk about it, and therefore Sheehy can't write about it.

If you're looking for an inside view of Hillary, this isn't the book. If you're looking for some background information on who Bill and Hillary are, this might be the book for you.

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A balanced rendition of Hillary - she's not perfect 19. Mai 2000

Von Patricia A. Powell

This is neither a flattering puff piece, nor a political attack. It is a balanced view of the first, first lady who acknowledges and pursues her own political ambitions.

The author presents Hillary as intellectually brilliant, but emotionally flawed. She explains a great deal about Hillary's and then Bill's early years and leads logically to where the first couple finds itself today.

Occasionally, Ms. Sheehy can't resist sniping. But, on all critically important issues, this writer remains objective. She explains Mrs. Clinton's famous "right wing conspiracy" appearance on the Today Show neither as a wife deceived, nor as a political combatant. Sheehy presents it as a wife hoping desperately that this time her defense is merited.

Hillary approaches her life and relationships through her head, not her heart. While Hillary has been heavily critisized for this, Sheehey deftly explains how this was inevitable given her background. But, she is not one dimentional. Sheehy tells a story of when Hillary was considering graduate school, she was looking first at Harvard and then at Yale as Harvard's competition. Someone from Harvard responded by saying that Harvard had no competition. Hillary chose Yale.

If you want a book the glorifies or demonizes Hillary, then look elsewhere. But, if you are interested in a book that helps explain this complicated and flawed woman, then Ms. Sheehy's book "Hillary's Choice" may well be what you are looking for.

p.s. It's good plane/beach reading.

Hillary's Choice - who is this First Lady? 18. Mai 2000

Von Rebecca Brown

Who is Hillary Clinton & where does she come from? Gail Sheehy has written a personable, detailed biography of this Midwesterner who grew up in a bright post-war world. In many things this First Lady is as ordinary as apple pie & as unusual as the 1960s. An absorbing saga of Anywoman of this era, the choices she made & the opportunities she took. A bit of a slog for us outsiders.