The Promise

Newsweek columnist/biographer Alter (The Defining Moment) drew on some extraordinary access to White House personnel to create this exhaustive biography seeking to present a physical, psychological, and spiritual definition of a man who is difficult to define. Aside from some spiteful digs at John McCain and Bill Clinton, he focuses on our current President as he tackles two wars, an imploding economy, wary foreign powers, crippling unemployment, congressional recalcitrance, the quicksand of health care, and two daughters who remind him of his promise to buy them a dog. Alter himself reads, in a steady, unemotional voice not belying his enthusiasm for his subject. An exemplary work of "instant history" certain to become one of the primary reference books on our President. [Includes a bonus interview with Obama; the New York Times best-selling S. & S. hc was recommended "to serious readers of current affairs and as a complement to [David] Remnick's [The Bridge]," LJ 6/1/10.—Ed.]—Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA