The Price of Politics

By: Bob Woodward

Narrated by: Boyd Gaines

Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Based on 18 months of reporting, Woodward's 17th book The Price of Politics is an intimate, documented examination of how President Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government's fiscal condition over three and one half years. Drawn from memos, contemporaneous meeting notes, emails, and in-depth interviews with the central players, The Price of Politics addresses the key issue of the presidential and congressional campaigns: the condition of the American economy and how and why we got there.

Providing verbatim, day-by-day, even hour-by-hour accounts, the book shows what really happened, what drove the debates, negotiations, and struggles that define, and will continue to define, the American future.

©2012 Bob Woodward (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Reads too much like a transcript

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

More in-depth portrayals of each of the participants interwoven with a richer contextual background of the day-to-day lives of Americans. It read too much like a court room transcript, and became monotonous after a while.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I am listening to the series "A Dance to the Music of Time" as well as a biography of Benjamin Franklin

Which scene was your favorite?

I do not recall any scenes in the book. About halfway through, I gave up on it. It's as monotonous as that droning periodocity of news channels: "We want revenue, we want cuts, we want revenue", on and on, night after night--filling time and space with circles.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Monotonous imprisonment

lifeless and tedious

I quit after a couple of hours as there was no drama, just tedious bickering. There was no sense of a thesis nor any conclusions.

Pretty Poor

What disappointed you about The Price of Politics?

Just wasn't a compelling story. Back and forth bickering leading back to square one, then a few steps forward. Nothing intriguing about this at all.

What does Boyd Gaines bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Boyd Gaines is an EXCELLENT voice.

A great story that gets lost in the detail

What disappointed you about The Price of Politics?

I'm a newshound and a CNN junkie, but this book was a real snoozer. The author is preoccupied with reporting so many numbers, dollars, and Washington insider speak that you could play ten minutes from any part of the book (beginning, middle, end) and it ALL sounds the same. I've never wanted to get to the end of an Audible book so quickly.The narrator tries too hard to imitate the many people mentioned in the book. One minute he is trying an Ohio accent, next a Virginia accent, etc. He tries (very clumsily) to do the voices of every character in the book, to the point it becomes annoying.