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Clinton in Exile: A President Out of the White House
Just before noon on January 20, 2001, the most powerful and arguably most ambitious man in the world relinquished the public stage, reluctantly, at the young age of fifty-four. Having endured infamous scandals and impeachment, President Bill Clinton left office with record approval ratings—and embarked on an uncertain journey. Since then Clinton has moved in and out of the shadows of this "exile," leaving the millions who knew him to How has this man of such outsized talent and passions adjusted to leaving power? Based on more than 150 interviews with the former president's friends, associates, and sometime enemies, Clinton in Exile takes readers from Clinton's last hours in office, through his indulgent personal life and well-publicized humanitarian efforts, to his front-of-camera and behind-the-scenes coordination of his wife's presidential campaign. Noted biographer and journalist Carol Felsenthal has spent two years investigating these questions among many others, and her reporting gives a fascinating and textured portrait of this complex man. Clinton in Exile is the definitive biography of one of the most towering, intriguing, and deeply controversial figures of our time.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 15, 2009
Clinton in Exile is a rather sorry and pointless little look at Bill Clinton's post-presidential life. It's composed mostly of well known and oft repeated data about Clinton's life and obvious observations (such as that Clinton has a big ego, high intelligence and gets energized by crowds, and Presidents sometimes find it hard to adjust being basically unemployed after having been the most powerful person on earth.) Felsenthal tries to spice up her book by including a bunch of unflattering comments and derogatory gossip, invariably sourced to persons allegedly interviewed by her, but who wish "to remain anonymous."
Although the book makes a pretense at being fair and balanced by mentioning Clinton's obvious and undeniable talents, it's still pretty obvious that Felsenthal regards him with disdain. One example: She makes a big point of breathlessly adding up Clinton's big speaking fees, (as much as several hundred thousand dollars a pop!) and while she does admit that other former presidents also hit the speaking circuit and got well paid, she neglects to mention the biggest past preident speaking fee of all, Reagan's two million dollar fee for a single speech in Japan.
The mystery is why Felsenthal wrote this book. She says that the idea came to her "one sleepless night" as she was reading a biography of Theodore Roosevelt's post-presidential life. She writes that it seemed to her "that every square inch of Bill Clinton's life has been examined, but I knew that one segment had not yet been covered in a book -- the years after he left the White House...trailing controversy, scandal, misunderstanding, and typically, drama, both high and low." This might be true, but it isn't to say that Clinton's life after leaving office hasn't been examined at some length in countless magazine and newspaper articles, as well as whole chapters in books about his life.
At any rate, having marked out her territory, seemingly for no better reason than that it was there, Felsenthal proceeded to write a book that contains nothing new. Oddly, and tellingly, at the end of her book, Felsenthal quotes a "important Democrat, Lou Susman, who ran the finance end of the Kerry campaign" and an Obama partisan, as saying that "in the end what Clinton does postpresidency is irrelevant. The history books that generations to come will read will focus on Clinton's presidency; it won't matter how many trips to Africa he makes, how many babies he holds, how many billions he raises at CGI conferences. What matter is what he did or didn't do as president. 'His legacy will be his morals,' says Susman, adding...'How do you have an affair with an intern in the White House. You don't have to let that happen. That shows a total lack of judgment and discipline.'"
The use of this quote is telling for two reasons. First, one suspects that these are Felsenthal's own true sentiments, that the bottom line is that she can't get past the Lewinsky scandal and judges the entirety of Bill Clinton's life through that lens. Second, it's not very often that an author basically admits that they think that the subject they've chosen to write about is "irrelevant." All of which highlights but leaves unanswered the mystery of why Felsenthal wrote this book. One might surmise that even an irrelevant Bill Clinton, "in exile," with all his flaws and warts, is still one of the most compelling and fascinating public figures to walk the public stage in our generation, and that Felsenthal figured that she could find nothing better to write about.
Although the book makes a pretense at being fair and balanced by mentioning Clinton's obvious and undeniable talents, it's still pretty obvious that Felsenthal regards him with disdain. One example: She makes a big point of breathlessly adding up Clinton's big speaking fees, (as much as several hundred thousand dollars a pop!) and while she does admit that other former presidents also hit the speaking circuit and got well paid, she neglects to mention the biggest past preident speaking fee of all, Reagan's two million dollar fee for a single speech in Japan.
The mystery is why Felsenthal wrote this book. She says that the idea came to her "one sleepless night" as she was reading a biography of Theodore Roosevelt's post-presidential life. She writes that it seemed to her "that every square inch of Bill Clinton's life has been examined, but I knew that one segment had not yet been covered in a book -- the years after he left the White House...trailing controversy, scandal, misunderstanding, and typically, drama, both high and low." This might be true, but it isn't to say that Clinton's life after leaving office hasn't been examined at some length in countless magazine and newspaper articles, as well as whole chapters in books about his life.
At any rate, having marked out her territory, seemingly for no better reason than that it was there, Felsenthal proceeded to write a book that contains nothing new. Oddly, and tellingly, at the end of her book, Felsenthal quotes a "important Democrat, Lou Susman, who ran the finance end of the Kerry campaign" and an Obama partisan, as saying that "in the end what Clinton does postpresidency is irrelevant. The history books that generations to come will read will focus on Clinton's presidency; it won't matter how many trips to Africa he makes, how many babies he holds, how many billions he raises at CGI conferences. What matter is what he did or didn't do as president. 'His legacy will be his morals,' says Susman, adding...'How do you have an affair with an intern in the White House. You don't have to let that happen. That shows a total lack of judgment and discipline.'"
The use of this quote is telling for two reasons. First, one suspects that these are Felsenthal's own true sentiments, that the bottom line is that she can't get past the Lewinsky scandal and judges the entirety of Bill Clinton's life through that lens. Second, it's not very often that an author basically admits that they think that the subject they've chosen to write about is "irrelevant." All of which highlights but leaves unanswered the mystery of why Felsenthal wrote this book. One might surmise that even an irrelevant Bill Clinton, "in exile," with all his flaws and warts, is still one of the most compelling and fascinating public figures to walk the public stage in our generation, and that Felsenthal figured that she could find nothing better to write about.
March 28, 2009
NOTE - I thought I had posted this ages ago! Am copying and pasting it here now.
I need to apologize in advance to Ms. Felsenthal, for two reasons.
(1) This is not the kind of book I typically enjoy. To be perfectly honest, I only requested it from Harper because Rob loves this kind of stuff and he begged me to get it so he could read it and review it on my behalf. I would apologize to Harper for this because I'm not sure they'd be real keen on Rob doing my reviewing for me, but it's a non-issue because Rob did not read the book after all. I totally should have realized this, since the last book he read was The World According to Garp and that was about a million years ago (what can I say? The man hates to read. It's tragic.). Not wanting to neglect my end of the free-book bargain, I plodded through the book after all, but I do feel like I owe an apology to the author since I was kind of guaranteed not to enjoy it.
and
(2) I have decided that if I'm going to review books, I had damn well better be honest in my reviews, so this might sound a little ruthless.
Alright. Now that those are out of the way, I have to say that I really wasn't a fan of this book from the very beginning...and by "very beginning", I mean "since I read the title". Seriously? "Exile"? We are comparing Clinton's life after the presidency to an exile? When I think of "exile", I think "Hey, Napoleon! You are banished from here forever and we are going to plop you down on the island of Elba. Hahahahaha!" I do not think of "exile" and think "Oh, poor baby Bill, you are no longer the center of attention and now you have to build a legacy and try to get past the gossip about Monica and oh, wah, you don't know how to use an ATM."
But maybe that's just me and I'm taking this too literally. Right? But I was also annoyed by the chapter entitled "Clinton Fixes Africa", in which I learned about Clinton's work to eradicate AIDS there (not yet completed...so how can you proclaim Africa "fixed"?), which really talked more about how someone else may have done most of the work and how people worry that Clinton has bitten off more than he can chew because Africa is a really big place and blah di blah.
I know it sounds like i hated the book, but I really didn't. In fact, those complaints listed above are almost the only ones that I have, other than the fact that it took me a lot longer to read than a quick fiction book would take (but that's to be expected) and the fact that there is discussion in the book about what would happen if Hilary won the election (which by now we know she won't win since she conceded to Obama, so it all felt a bit moot). I'm sure it helps that I'm a democrat - a democrat who voted for Hillary in the primary, too (I know most of you preferred Obama, so sorry if I shock or disappoint you) - but it really was quite interesting. I found myself nodding along to commentary about how "issues such as ethnic clenasing in Bosnia were all shunted aside so the world could focus on Bill Clinton getting 'a blow job'". Frankly, pages 310 through 313 are some of the more thought-provoking pages of any book that I've read in a while (discussing the idea that Monica Lewinsky...or Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky...or the American public's fascination with the relationship and judgment of BIll Clinton for it...changed the world.)
It did change my perspective a little bit on the Clintons (both of them), while confirming my general distaste for most politicians, though. Although I think the book was pro-Clinton, I was never quite sure (Rob tells me this is because I don't keep up with politics and says most people would be able to tell), because it felt sympathetic to Clinton but also made me end up thinking the dude is a bit of an egomaniacal, narcissistic freak (even more so than one who hasn't read this book would think). If any of you decide to read it, I'd love to hear what you think, too.
Oh, and I was particularly interested to note that Bill is a fan of board games, as well as to note on page 83 that Bill Clinton drinks "more Diet Coke than you can imagine a person drink, starting in the morning". Rock on, Bill! Wanna join me in my quest to get the old caps back and then play Scattergories?
I need to apologize in advance to Ms. Felsenthal, for two reasons.
(1) This is not the kind of book I typically enjoy. To be perfectly honest, I only requested it from Harper because Rob loves this kind of stuff and he begged me to get it so he could read it and review it on my behalf. I would apologize to Harper for this because I'm not sure they'd be real keen on Rob doing my reviewing for me, but it's a non-issue because Rob did not read the book after all. I totally should have realized this, since the last book he read was The World According to Garp and that was about a million years ago (what can I say? The man hates to read. It's tragic.). Not wanting to neglect my end of the free-book bargain, I plodded through the book after all, but I do feel like I owe an apology to the author since I was kind of guaranteed not to enjoy it.
and
(2) I have decided that if I'm going to review books, I had damn well better be honest in my reviews, so this might sound a little ruthless.
Alright. Now that those are out of the way, I have to say that I really wasn't a fan of this book from the very beginning...and by "very beginning", I mean "since I read the title". Seriously? "Exile"? We are comparing Clinton's life after the presidency to an exile? When I think of "exile", I think "Hey, Napoleon! You are banished from here forever and we are going to plop you down on the island of Elba. Hahahahaha!" I do not think of "exile" and think "Oh, poor baby Bill, you are no longer the center of attention and now you have to build a legacy and try to get past the gossip about Monica and oh, wah, you don't know how to use an ATM."
But maybe that's just me and I'm taking this too literally. Right? But I was also annoyed by the chapter entitled "Clinton Fixes Africa", in which I learned about Clinton's work to eradicate AIDS there (not yet completed...so how can you proclaim Africa "fixed"?), which really talked more about how someone else may have done most of the work and how people worry that Clinton has bitten off more than he can chew because Africa is a really big place and blah di blah.
I know it sounds like i hated the book, but I really didn't. In fact, those complaints listed above are almost the only ones that I have, other than the fact that it took me a lot longer to read than a quick fiction book would take (but that's to be expected) and the fact that there is discussion in the book about what would happen if Hilary won the election (which by now we know she won't win since she conceded to Obama, so it all felt a bit moot). I'm sure it helps that I'm a democrat - a democrat who voted for Hillary in the primary, too (I know most of you preferred Obama, so sorry if I shock or disappoint you) - but it really was quite interesting. I found myself nodding along to commentary about how "issues such as ethnic clenasing in Bosnia were all shunted aside so the world could focus on Bill Clinton getting 'a blow job'". Frankly, pages 310 through 313 are some of the more thought-provoking pages of any book that I've read in a while (discussing the idea that Monica Lewinsky...or Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky...or the American public's fascination with the relationship and judgment of BIll Clinton for it...changed the world.)
It did change my perspective a little bit on the Clintons (both of them), while confirming my general distaste for most politicians, though. Although I think the book was pro-Clinton, I was never quite sure (Rob tells me this is because I don't keep up with politics and says most people would be able to tell), because it felt sympathetic to Clinton but also made me end up thinking the dude is a bit of an egomaniacal, narcissistic freak (even more so than one who hasn't read this book would think). If any of you decide to read it, I'd love to hear what you think, too.
Oh, and I was particularly interested to note that Bill is a fan of board games, as well as to note on page 83 that Bill Clinton drinks "more Diet Coke than you can imagine a person drink, starting in the morning". Rock on, Bill! Wanna join me in my quest to get the old caps back and then play Scattergories?
July 12, 2008
A critical review of President Clinton's activities since leaving the White House, with lots and lots of rehash of his misdeeds while in office (much more exciting and titillating than his successes, obviously).
The most interesting chapters and tidbits concern his recent relationship with George H. W. Bush, making this book a worthwhile read. For anyone who is fascinated with the psychological makeup of President Clinton (as I am), there's tremendous food for thought in the tight knit, enduring bond between these two. It would certainly appear that "42" has found the father figure for whom he's yearned. And "41" finally has an intellectual with whom to discuss important weighty subjects of international importance since clearly his own son is incapable of such a conversation.
The most interesting chapters and tidbits concern his recent relationship with George H. W. Bush, making this book a worthwhile read. For anyone who is fascinated with the psychological makeup of President Clinton (as I am), there's tremendous food for thought in the tight knit, enduring bond between these two. It would certainly appear that "42" has found the father figure for whom he's yearned. And "41" finally has an intellectual with whom to discuss important weighty subjects of international importance since clearly his own son is incapable of such a conversation.
May 29, 2010
This book was a good one to read because it had comments from over 300 people who met and visited the Clinton's while they were in the white house. Much of the book I remembered from the days and weeks in the news following his presidency. What did I learn? Clinton was seeking friendship and companionship even as president. I think he is a lonely man basically and has an insatiable need for reinforcement and approval from the public and anyone who will give it. I felt sad for him. Very interesting insight into the personality of Former President Clinton.
December 26, 2008
A very well-balanced look at Bill Clinton since he left the White House. His depression upon leaving, his global charity work, his womanizing, his outrageous speaking fees; in other words, the good, bad and ugly of Bill Clinton. All around an interesting book. The book does assume that Hillary will be the Democratic candidate for President in 2008 (written before the primaries started) so it is already a little dated.
October 18, 2014
Very interesting book about an interesting and complex person. Based on interviews with friends and some foes this is a fairly extensive look at President Clinton in his last days in office and the years since. The dirty business at the end of his presidency which was mostly disproven, takes away from the quality of the book but since it was part of his life I suppose it needed to be included. The work done by Clinton post-presidency is very interesting and well worth the read.
December 9, 2010
So biased that it's almost impressive. I mean, it's tough to make a friendship with Nelson Mandela out to be a bad thing, but she manages it. Almost a waste of time, but it's interesting to see how those who are dead set against finding anything good about someone justify their arguments.
June 26, 2008
Bill Clinton adjusts to being an ex-president. He likes being in front of a crowd.
October 25, 2012
It really bogged down about halfway through. Tough reading from that point on. A few highlights here and there after that, but not anything I would recommend to anyone else.
February 1, 2016
Excellent book. Continues the Clinton saga...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews