In memoir, Clinton gives no quarters

The book was obtained by The New York Times from a book store. The book provides an intimate glimpse not only of Clinton’s struggle with the Lewinsky affair and the impeachment battle that followed, but also of eight years in the White House, an improbable childhood and a precocious political career. The book is sprawling, undisciplined and idiosyncratic in its choice of emphasis.

It pulses with Clinton’s own voice and is bursting with a typical profusion of anecdote and detail. The book’s length gives Clinton enough room to settle scores and he does so with elan.

Clinton wrote that from an early age he lived ‘‘parallel lives,’’ with a public gregariousness and sunny disposition masking private turmoil. This was evident again in 1998, he said, when the Lewinsky affair was revealed and Clinton spent months lying to his family, aides and the nation. His family creed, he wrote, was ‘‘don’t ask, don’t tell’’.

The Lewinsky investigation brought what he called ‘‘darkest part of my inner life’’ into full view. He said he was disgusted by his sexual encounters with Lewinsky, which he said ended after several months when he could no longer live with himself. When he confessed to Hillary in August 1998, he wrote, she reacted as if he had punched her in the gut. Telling daughter Chelsea was worse. He felt for weeks afterward that his indulgence and mendacity risked not only his marriage but also the love and respect of his only child. — (NYT)