Written prior to 2008's Democratic nomination fight with Barak Obama, this is Carl Bernstein's stab at a definitive biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, from her work as a lawyer on the Watergate case, to her introduction and marriage to Bill Clinton, to her glass-ceiling-busting presence in a leading Arkansan law firm in the 1970s, to the sex scandals, to Mr. Clinton's election to the presidency, to Healthcare in 1994, to Vincent Foster, to Monica Lewinsky, and finally to her own political career, first as senator and then as the Democratic party's presumptive nominee for the American presidency. Ms. Clinton has had a long and remarkable life and Mr. Bernstein leaves few stones unturned as he unsparingly recounts her successes and her failures.
I imagine that Ms. Clinton's supporters will find Mr. Bernstein too harsh and her detractors find him too soft, but I find this to be a sign of a good biography. Mr. Bernstein forsakes much of the muckraking and gossipping that soils most works of this type, producing instead an unflinching portrayal of one of America's most outstanding women. (4/5 Stars)
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