Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Politician

I love nonfiction, what I love more than non-fiction is non-fiction regarding current affairs and in this book, when I say affairs I do mean AFFAIRS.
~
I had heard clips on the news about John Edwards infidelity over the years and really didn't think much of it because, sadly, it seems as though a Mistress is the latest accessory to our elected officials (I know, I should not generalize).
~
One night as I idly flipped through the channels I came across the interview of Andrew Young and his wife. They proceeded to tell the interviewer of a wild story of how Andrew Young, John Edwards Aid, slowly became entangled in Edwards life and eventual John Edwards scandal and lies. For reasons beyond what I can understand, Andrew Young claimed the paternity for John Edwards love child. As a wife, I do NOT understand how Andrews wife let him get this far in over his head. Having said that, I do very much like Andrews wife. She saw Edwards for who is was from the beginning (that is why husbands should always listen to our intuition).
~
Of course I wanted to hear more and rushed out to buy the book. To introduce the elephant in the room, in the prologue Andrew Young says, "My critics will say I am writing this book for money. They are partly correct. The Edwards scandal has left me practically unemployable, and as a husband and father, I have serious responsibilities I can meet by publishing my story." Then he goes on to tell the story in a very mater-of-fact way. It is not written in such detail that you get a visual, it is written in a way that he is just telling you his version of the story.
~
To be honest if you watched the interview, you pretty much know all the juicy parts to the book. Overall it was a good quick read that left me feeling a bit sad. It would be very interesting if he wrote a follow-up book in 10 years. I would like to know if he thought writing this book made his life better or if it just continued the story making it worse for himself.