Michael

I found the text of the book very hard to maintain interest in but this audiobook production was excellently performed and executed. The actress who reads was delightful and enthusiastic. High quality!

This book would be more appreciated by those who did not feel so disappointed in and disrespected by the Bush Administration.

His lack of serious introspection and his failure to address the core failures of his presidency was supremely disappointing. This book is a missed opportunity. He only cops to minor sort of surface failures - his chapter on Katrina is incredibly obtuse. He claims the principle failures were the failure to deploy troops just a little faster and some minor public relations missteps. I don't know why I was expecting, from this man, a deeper self-analysis of a defining moment of his presidency than this, but I really was.

Another problem of the book is the score-settling he includes, often in glib little asides and often somewhat hypocritically. For example, he criticizes the campaign strategies of Al Gore and John Kerry, but has nothing but praise for Karl Rove and Lee Atwater. Seriously, that's hysterical. He should do stand-up.

A real missed opportunity for a surprisingly thoughtful-seeming man to reckon with his presidency's complex legacy.

McLarty is a great narrator. George W. Bush has a distinct way of speaking and there are many types of narrators who would have been either too formal in their speech or would have gone overboard into caricature. McLarty strikes a great balance - a vaguely Texan accent but not an imitation. You could almost close your eyes and imagine G.W.B. was doing the talking himself.

It's certainly compelling and engaging. It's hard to put down once you've started listening, because he's really addressing some very important moments in our recent history. And he comes across as surprisingly endearing for large portions of the book.