Posted on 06/22/2004 3:40:53 PM PDT by Libloather
Clinton Book Lacks Salacious Details Readers Want
9 minutes ago
By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans waiting to read Bill Clinton's take on the affair with Monica Lewinsky that rocked his presidency must wade through 773 pages of turgid prose to find a recollection remarkably devoid of details.
Four-fifths of the way into his memoir "My Life," released on Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf, the former president recalls his infamous affair with the White House intern.
Clinton writes that in 1995, "I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April, when she left the White House for the Pentagon."
In all, the book's index cites just 16 pages where Lewinsky is mentioned -- none shedding light on what drove Clinton to the affair or the details of the liaison itself, instead dwelling on his battle with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and repairing his relationship with his wife and daughter.
For most readers, the book is too detailed on policy issues and not detailed enough on the impact his sexual indiscretions had on his personal life, several experts said.
Robert Thompson, popular culture professor at Syracuse University, said the "big bombshell" of the Lewinsky saga would be the No. 1 reason Americans buy the book, which hit bookstores on Tuesday in a 1.5 million first printing.
Those readers will look first at the index, jump straight to the first Lewinsky reference and feel let down, Thompson said of the scant reference to the intern in the book.
"Next to Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' this may be the most purchased but unread book to come along in a long time," Thompson said. "Millions and millions of people will buy this Bill Clinton book, but a significantly smaller number of them will actually read it from start to finish."
And if reviews in the coming days echo an early notice in The New York Times, which called the memoir "sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull," few readers will ever get far enough to be disappointed, they said.
WILL READERS READ?
"How many people will buy this as a political statement of their opposition to President Bush and how many people will buy this to actually read it?," wondered Bob Weil, executive editor at publisher W.W. Norton in New York.
But irrespective of the quality of Clinton's prose, Weil said it would have been "indecent" for a former president to indulge in salacious details in his memoir.
"We have to examine the voracious needs of the media and our scandal-besotted public," he said.
Psychologist David Marcus of San Jose, California, an expert in sexual compulsiveness, said glossing over the affair was to be expected from a sexual compulsive like Clinton, who he suggested had not dealt with his demons.
"Confronting it is too painful for him and, because of that, he is trying to avoid it," Marcus said. "Unless his editor said, 'We need this to sell the book,' why would he write about it? It's too painful."
Deborah Tannen, linguistics professor at Washington's Georgetown University, said Clinton's non-specific language in writing about Lewinsky was "appropriate for a book like this."
"This is the polar opposite of what the Starr investigation did," Tannen said, referring to the 1998 report that led to Clinton's impeachment.
Tannen said that report, which went into intricate detail about oral sex and sexual trysts between Clinton and Lewinsky was, "quite unique and transforming to our culture."
"What Clinton is doing is the polar opposite of that; he is trying not to break down that barrier between what is public and what is private," said Tannen, the author of several books on how people communicate.
At a bookstore in Harlem where Clinton fans lined up to have their copies autographed, readers said they could care less if Clinton left out the steamy bits.
"As far as the tawdriness goes, it just doesn't interest me. Everybody already knows what the story was," said New Yorker Walter Ocner as he settled in for a long wait for the notoriously unpunctual politician.
I'm sure plenty of *Crinton followers would - if they could...
If they're looking for the porn, its not there. The hype is more interesting than what's inside the book and I think Rush said something to the effect that what authors tout on TV isn't the same as what's in their books. I don't any one will plow through 900 plus pages of Bubba's fiction to get to the section they're REALLY interested in finding out about. And since he's a liar, nothing he says is trustworthy anyway.
Ripley will buy a copy and title it "A book without any truth"
"Clinton Book Lacks Salacious Details Readers Want"
So it's selling because people think it's pornography! How funny is THAT!
No, Mark, the readers just want truth. It is not in this book.
The one thing Clinton will be remembered for is his White House romp. Its overshadowed everything else in his sorry eight years of a waste in the Oval Office.
My friend, Clinton and the truth are mutually exclusive and they have never met. <snort
Perhaps, but in this regard you have to give him credit for trying.
I just got off the phone with Sidney Bluemnthal. He's on pg 386. He's been reading straight through since midnight.
It's The Things Book about what else. MEMEMEMEMEME.
I'm surprised there are so many pages, I didn't think he could remember anything substantial. I was also wondering how many times he used the world "is" in it's right context.
Its flattering to remembered for giving a mistress blow jobs. Wow, what a historical feat of greatness! <laughing
He could have published a small pamphlet and saved Alfred A. Knopf the gallons of ink.
All I want to know is what kind of cigar it was so I never buy any.
The House should vote to declassify what was in the evidence room at the time. There was reports of oral-anal sex between those two (Ecchh). It would make a splash at the DNC convention, but not many other places. I remember this stuff. It was posted here.
Paging Reader's Digest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
