Pat Nixon : the untold story /

No surprises here. Julie finds her mother devoted, loyal, thrifty, courageousa remarkable woman whose ``grit'' kept her going from her struggling student days in the Depression through the vicissitudes of political life to the nightmare of Watergate. Julie's sincere affection and admiration for her mother are the most attractive features of this otherwise lackluster book. Ironically, even in her daughter's hands Pat Nixon remains the quintessential political wife, fading into the background as events overtake the Presidency and her biography slips into a apologia for Nixon's political career. Julie remains her father's most spirited defender: Haldeman isolated him, Dean lied about him, and the press victimized him. Nixon supporters will find this valentine of a book reassuring, but everyone else will look in vain for the ``untold truth.'' Like the close-knit family scenes the author is fond of describing, the book is cozy, respectable and dull. Major ad/promo. (November 10) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

And untold for good reason, if this tedious, adulatory rendering by the subject's daughter is all there is to tell. During Watergate, rumor had it that Pat Nixon and Henry K. were running the country while Dick drank and prayed. Maybe not, but it's difficult to believe that Pat Nixon has spent her life as a Barbie Doll accessory to Dick--the unintentional message delivered in this rambling testament. And even if that were true, it takes a real mistress of the inane, given that Pat's life-partner remains one of the most fascinating political animals of modern history, to serve up this boring, platitudinous gruel. Pat's dutiful daughter does try to spice up matters by placing her mom's story in a fairy-tale framework (from miner's shack to White House), but what is sorely lacking is any insight into the occasional glimpses offered of the strong woman who became First Lady. Here we have an obvious powerhouse treated as a mediocrity, as a fluttering mass of emotional response. And Eisenhower's fuzzy portrait of Pat floats in a sea of apologies for her father, clarifying a probable major reason for this book: the continuing public rehabilitation of Dick. The only real excitement the author generates is when she tackles Watergate, wagging her finger at Dick Nixon's aides, the press, the Congress, and, by implication, the entire country. A 450-page Mother's Day card. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.