Joe Biden

Please note: this review is of the book and not the man himself or his politics. With only a week to go until the US election, I felt I should learn a little more about Biden as a person as I realise I know almost nothing about an individual who could soon be president of one of the world's superpowers. In this concise yet informative portrayal Evan Osnos offers a nuanced, deeply-reported and three-dimensional portrait of Biden and illuminates his long and eventful fifty-year political career and his long presence in the Senate, his eight years as Obama’s vice president, his sojourn in the political wilderness after being passed over for Hillary Clinton in 2016, his decision to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency, and his choice of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Osnos ponders the difficulties Biden will face if elected and weighs how political circumstances, and changes in the candidate’s thinking, have altered his positions. In this nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy—a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history. Split into eight chapters, this is a short, balanced biography focused on Biden’s political escapades and trials and tribulations over the years rather than his personal life or his formative years. I learned a lot about his tenacity and triumphs over adversity as well as his stance on many things. This is a comprehensive and well-researched memoir and tends to remain objective throughout, which was a must for me.

In this penetrating and captivating portrait, Evan Osnos, who followed Joe Biden for years for The New Yorker, paints a razor-sharp picture of the man on whom all the hopes of progressive and liberal America are focused. He spoke at length with Biden himself and over a hundred others, from progressive activists, opponents, and family members to former President Obama. Adapted from Osnos’s in-depth New Yorker profiles of the Democratic presidential nominee, the book features revelatory conversations with President Barack Obama, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, John Kerry, Cory Booker, former advisors, Biden family members, and new reporting. A quick and interesting read. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

I have so much respect for Joe Biden as a human, politics aside he has been through so much personally and then to devote close to 5 decades to public service in my book makes him an incredible man. As this book shows he’s not perfect, show me a human who is but he had consistently picked himself up, dusted himself down and put his best foot forward- what more can you ask for from a man and a leader