My Life a "Messy Pastiche"

For the straight dope on Clinton's memoir, you'll want to read Michiko Kakutani's New York Times review of the 950-plus page tome. She's not nearly as dazzled as some:

In many ways, the book is a mirror of Mr. Clinton's presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration. This memoir underscores many strengths of Mr. Clinton's eight years in the White House and his understanding that he was governing during a transitional and highly polarized period. But the very lack of focus and order that mars these pages also prevented him from summoning his energies in a sustained manner to bring his insights about the growing terror threat and an Israeli-Palestinian settlement to fruition.

She notes that "the seeds of his adult self can be glimpsed in an autobiographical essay he wrote in high school: 'I am a living paradox — deeply religious, yet not as convinced of my exact beliefs as I ought to be; wanting responsibility yet shirking it; loving the truth but often times giving way to falsity.'"

Finally, she points out that the book already seems something of an artifact:

Lies about sex and real estate, partisan rancor over "character issues" (not over weapons of mass destruction or pre-emptive war), psychobabble mea culpas, and tabloid wrangles over stained dresses all seem like pressing matters from another galaxy, far, far away.

So true. Has it really only been four years?