A review by icgerrard
Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham

3.0

3.5 It's a good biography. However, it is also extremely unreflective. As other reviewers have mentioned, you get the distinct impression that Meacham really liked Bush personally, from all the interviews, and that any complexity of character was lost. The one thing you learn about Bush in this book above all other things is that he was just *such a nice guy* who tried *so hard* to do the *right thing* in spite of the media and whatever else was making it difficult. I've read a lot of biographies of presidents and I can't think of one that was so invested in you seeing how *nice* and *good* the subject was. Very one dimensional. And didn't make me feel like I learned much about him or the time. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options when it comes to biographies of George HW Bush yet, so I think this is probably still the best available one.