Bill's Self-Portrait; His book is vintage Clinton--by turns interesting and infuriating, inspiring and self-pitying. Unpacking the hotly anticipated memoir 'My Life.'.(Book Review)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 28-JUN-04

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Byline: Weston Kosova And Michael Isikoff, With Kathryn Williams

If Bill Clinton had to pick a defining moment that says more about him than any other, it probably wouldn't be the afternoon he was sworn in as president after a long, uphill campaign. Or even the morning when he finally confessed to his wife and daughter that he had been lying all along about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Instead, it might be the night young Clinton brandished a golf club at his drunken stepfather, who was beating Clinton's mother. "Daddy," as Clinton called him, was an alcoholic given to rages.

Ashamed, Clinton writes in "My Life," his new memoir that officially goes on sale Tuesday, he resolved to keep the troubled reality of his home life secret from his friends and neighbors. As a boy, he was known for his good humor and his enthusiasm for everything--movies, books, music, sports, school, girls--bottomless appetites that would only grow as he matured. But unknown to anyone, Clinton writes, he learned to live "parallel" lives:...

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