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coraaPosting before I head off to lunch -- expect more tonight; I have a backlog to catch up.
The Final Days
, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
All the President's Men left off at the press conference where Nixon announced that he was "not a crook" and would not resign; The Final Days picks up from almost exactly that point, and continues through Nixon leaving the White House. Despite the continuity of time, though, it's not at all the same book as All the President's Men -- instead of an investigative thriller viewed from outside the halls of power looking in, it's entirely from the inside perspective of the Nixon White House in its last year of sliding into ruin. Ironically, where All The President's Men was all about uncovering, The Final Days was all about concealing.
The book begins with an explanation of the process they used to research the book, which sums up to: about a squillion interviews. Plus memos, transcripts, supporting documents, etc. -- specifically, they say that any information that could not be confirmed by two separate accounts was left out. And then we dive right into the Nixon White House in its death throes -- even before they realize that the flailing will turn out to be death throes.
There is a lot of flailing.
The thing that's interesting is that I-the-reader, of course, know that Nixon won't wriggle out of the charges in the end. I know he'll have to resign. But, in the book, there's no such awareness, of course -- at the beginning pretty much everyone except two of Nixon's lawyers seem to think that they can make the problem go away somehow, or at least downplay it enough that it will be a survivable blow. And over the course of the book, one by one, they lose their faith that it's possible to avert the looming disaster, until there's nobody but Nixon left.
In that sense, it reads a great deal like a tragedy. Which was interesting as a reader, because I really wanted to see Nixon get taken down for hisbehavior, which was both illegal and unethical. And yet, at times, it was hard not to feel -- well, not pity, exactly, but more like embarrassment-squick; as he resorted more and more to alcohol, and as his behavior became more and more irrational, I didn't exactly feel sorry for him, but I did flinch every time he did something self-destructive. I wanted him gone, but the flailing was painful. (I have to admit, I kept thinking in Internet memes: OH RICHARD NIXON NO, and I C WHAT U DID THAR, and so on. I can't help it.)
As a political thriller, though, it's absolutely fascinating: informative, interesting, and surprisingly suspenseful given that I do know how it's going to turn out. The feint-and-parry of the Nixon White House versus the court, where the court demanded tapes and the White House requested time, requested the right to censor for 'national security reasons', and stalled, and then the court overturned their requests, and on and on -- it's just fascinating. Worth a read, if you have any interest in 20th-century US political history, or in nonfiction thrillers.
(I need a new Vetinari-related politics icon that isn't quite so dated.)
Running Tally:
Total Books: 10
Fiction: 1
Non-Fiction: 9
POC Author: 0
The Final Days
, by Carl Bernstein and Bob WoodwardAll the President's Men left off at the press conference where Nixon announced that he was "not a crook" and would not resign; The Final Days picks up from almost exactly that point, and continues through Nixon leaving the White House. Despite the continuity of time, though, it's not at all the same book as All the President's Men -- instead of an investigative thriller viewed from outside the halls of power looking in, it's entirely from the inside perspective of the Nixon White House in its last year of sliding into ruin. Ironically, where All The President's Men was all about uncovering, The Final Days was all about concealing.
The book begins with an explanation of the process they used to research the book, which sums up to: about a squillion interviews. Plus memos, transcripts, supporting documents, etc. -- specifically, they say that any information that could not be confirmed by two separate accounts was left out. And then we dive right into the Nixon White House in its death throes -- even before they realize that the flailing will turn out to be death throes.
There is a lot of flailing.
The thing that's interesting is that I-the-reader, of course, know that Nixon won't wriggle out of the charges in the end. I know he'll have to resign. But, in the book, there's no such awareness, of course -- at the beginning pretty much everyone except two of Nixon's lawyers seem to think that they can make the problem go away somehow, or at least downplay it enough that it will be a survivable blow. And over the course of the book, one by one, they lose their faith that it's possible to avert the looming disaster, until there's nobody but Nixon left.
In that sense, it reads a great deal like a tragedy. Which was interesting as a reader, because I really wanted to see Nixon get taken down for hisbehavior, which was both illegal and unethical. And yet, at times, it was hard not to feel -- well, not pity, exactly, but more like embarrassment-squick; as he resorted more and more to alcohol, and as his behavior became more and more irrational, I didn't exactly feel sorry for him, but I did flinch every time he did something self-destructive. I wanted him gone, but the flailing was painful. (I have to admit, I kept thinking in Internet memes: OH RICHARD NIXON NO, and I C WHAT U DID THAR, and so on. I can't help it.)
As a political thriller, though, it's absolutely fascinating: informative, interesting, and surprisingly suspenseful given that I do know how it's going to turn out. The feint-and-parry of the Nixon White House versus the court, where the court demanded tapes and the White House requested time, requested the right to censor for 'national security reasons', and stalled, and then the court overturned their requests, and on and on -- it's just fascinating. Worth a read, if you have any interest in 20th-century US political history, or in nonfiction thrillers.
(I need a new Vetinari-related politics icon that isn't quite so dated.)
Running Tally:
Total Books: 10
Fiction: 1
Non-Fiction: 9
POC Author: 0