I'm not sure if that grin is smug, self-satisfied, slightly sheepish, whether below the frame of the picture he is getting a hummer or suffering from constipation - and maybe that summarizes the country's relationship with its 42nd president.
Anyway, Bill Clinton is back on the campaign trail, where he seems most comfortable, this time for his new book, My Life:
- Bill Clinton, once a president and now an author, offered a characteristic performance Thursday night for the country's publishing community: late, long, but ultimately satisfying to the crowd.
The keynote speaker at BookExpo America, publishing's annual national convention, Clinton was here to promote his memoir, "My Life," which comes out June 22 with a first printing of 1.5 million.
It was not the most efficient of promotional events. Clinton began 30 minutes behind schedule and spoke for 45 minutes, 25 minutes longer than expected. But he left to the same noisy approval as when he arrived — a standing ovation. And he showed the knack for summing up a 950-page book in a couple of sentences.
"When I was a young man, getting out of law school, I said one of the goals I had in life was to write a great book," he explained. "I have no earthly idea if it's a great book. But it's a pretty good story."
Clinton's speech, covering everything from 18th century politics to 21st century genetics, mirrored what he said the memoir itself would comprise: personal memories, general history, political analysis. He said the book could be divided into two sections. First, how Clinton's "small life" growing up in the South came to intersect with the country's life. Then, a book about policy, "some will think too much. But I think it's important because the presidency is a deciding job," he said.
Article comments
1 - Kate Williams
Has anyone seen a review copy of Clinton's new book?
2 - Bob A. Booey
I like the comments on his picture. Funny interpretations.
One of Clinton's many projects -- what he was discussing in that quote about law school -- was that he wanted to write the Great American Novel one summer. He read Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and others and decided he was going to write a novel but procrastinated and never really got much on paper. I would like to read what he worked on, though. It's also amusing that he would presume that his life story would make a great book, although it certainly could. I think David Maraniss's decade-old biography of Clinton is actually a very good book as political bios go. Clinton is a big history geek and reads presidential bios for fun, so I'm sure there was a good deal of self-awareness to his writing and it'll be interesting to see the degree of reflexivity to his legacy in those pages. I'd imagine it's also much less ghost-written than any other presidential autobiography since he's so proud and verbose.
That is all.
3 - Eric Olsen
Thanks BAB, always glad to be found funny, especially when I am trying. I am extremely interested in seeing what the reviews are like and reading - if not all 957, or whatever it is, pages - excerpts to see if he does bring his best to it: potentially it could be fascinating, revealing and insightful, or it could be mostly pud-whacking.
An update on Clinton here