Richard Nixon: The Life by John A Farrell 973.924 Far

I should not be reading books connected to politics.  Really - I need a break from all of that. However, there were some documentaries on TV about Watergate which I watched.  Then I happened to see an interview with the author.  So I was hooked.  I felt fairly well-versed in the saga of Nixon.  Turns out I just knew a little bit.  There was a whole lot more to find out.

This book won’t appeal to everyone. But if you like history, biographies, or politics you just have to read it!  I think it was very well-written and kept me interested even though I knew how the story was going to end.  Farrell seemed to give an unbiased insight into Nixon’s life from beginning to end.  I didn’t like Nixon before I read the book and my opinion didn’t change after I finished. I did feel I understood a bit better some reasons for his actions.  There were many things that shocked me.  There were many things that could be in an article in a current magazine with a few names being changed.

I’ll share one story that I thought was telling.  When a President moves into the White House his advisers always want to create a certain persona for him.  What makes a President look more approachable than a dog?  So they got one for Nixon (I think I remember it was a Golden Retriever).  The idea was the dog could hang out in the Oval Office next to Nixon’s desk.  They tried to get the dog to do it but the dog didn’t want to hang out with him.  Food for thought.

Nixon famously said: “I am not a quitter” - and I was never tempted to quit while reading this book!

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