NYT Book Review | "The Family" | 'beyond catty'

[nostamj]

The family in Odessa, Tex., about 1950. From left, Barbara Bush, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Dorothy Walker Bush, Prescott S. Bush.

<snip>

The final third of the book is devoted to George W. Bush. The dauphin makes his first appearance as a child pulling on a dog's tail. Anecdotes follow that will bring cringes to the White House handlers assigned to read the book. Young Bush hung a Confederate flag in his prep school dorm room, attacked ''The Grapes of Wrath'' as a ''Commie movie'' and called poor people ''lazy.'' Some nasty descriptions of fraternity hazing have W. torturing pledges with heated coat hangers. He appears not to have wrestled with the complexity of the Vietnam War, denouncing its critics and agreeing with his father that the war was good. Yet like many of his class he preferred that others do the fighting. One of the amazing things about America is how easy it is to live out one's formative experiences again and again.

But between the lines, there is another George W. Bush in ''The Family,'' and he too is interesting. From childhood on, Bush proves himself a tenacious fighter -- weeping over losses, exulting in victories and going to extraordinary lengths to avenge blood insults. But this time around, Sonny Corleone is a winner. Even in his early defeat for Congress, we see someone who loves politics and the sheer joy of going out on the road, through the small towns of West Texas, searching for his destiny like a Larry McMurtry character. That is a side of Bush -- charismatic, curious and human -- we have not always seen between the bright glare of his too-effusive admirers on the right and the equally harsh spotlight of his attackers on the left.

''The Family'' is surely not the last word on the Bushes. It contains little in the way of policy analysis, and skips sections of each Bush presidency to get at its more urgent goal, unmasking the driving personalities behind a family that just won't quit. The word ''dynasty'' in Kelley's subtitle, with its hint of primogeniture (to say nothing of Joan Collins), may be premature, though the Bushes recently assembled an exhibit comparing themselves to the Adamses at the Bush presidential library. One wishes that the caustic Henry Adams were alive to evaluate a claim that feels, like everything in the Bush saga, a bit forced.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/books/review/10WIDMERL.html?pagewanted=2

[UTUSN]

1. Well, Well, Well... A *Fair* Review of KELLEY, Who'd a Thunk It

Haha, that we didn't know Poppy was THAT power hungry, that he was such a racist, how tied he was to NIXON. We didn't know, but might have suspected, that he knocked himself unconscious playing tennis.

Now, media, let's let KELLEY on the cable shows.

[nostamj]

2. yes, I didn't know WHAT to expect...

and, AFAIC, the book is MUCH more interesting when it's about Poppy than smirk...

that said, it's a LONG slog mostly...

[AnnInLa]

3. I have just gotten to the part of the book which deals with

junior. Some of the most telling and favorite parts from KK's book:

"George took his six weeks of basic airman training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Upon completing it in Sept 1968, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. 'I've never heard of that,' said Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Natl Guard. 'Generally they did that for doctors only, because they needed flight surgeons.'

"Finally, his father who has gotten him every job he ever had, stepped in again."

"He put in haphazard hours with the Guard, but not enough to meet his requirements. By April 1972, he was lagging behind. That same month the Air Force began executing random drug tests, which meant that any pilot could be requested on the spot to submit to urinalysis, blood tests, or examination of the nasal passages."

"Those who worked with George...said he liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine." Behind his back, they called George the 'Texas souffle" because he was all puffed up and full of hot air."

At Harvard Business School (after being rejected for Law School) "He was remarkedly inarticulate," said Steve Arbeit. "God, so inarticulate it was frightening. The reason I say that he is dumber than dumb is not that I saw his test scors, it's the comments he made in the classes we had together that scared me..He was totally unimpressive."