He was a cut-up, a young man with many friends and few clear goals. But he was also the first son, and eventually, the expectations of his parents and the whole family broke through his natural nonchalance and he became a competitor. Less than a year after his father was defeated for reelection to the White House, George W. stepped forward as a candidate for governor of the nation's second largest state. The legacy would not be allowed to lapse. Minutaglio offers no deep insights into the emergence of this late-blooming purposefulness.
Chances are, there is no deep complexity of character to probe.
But the narrative is clear and the writing is well above the level of most campaign biographies. And there are some important clues to the character of a second Bush presidency. I suspect they'd have to prove they were as uncomfortable with the Old School Tie as Bush himself is. That's the part of George W. that is distinctly different from the earlier generations. George W.'s father figured out how to follow Ronald Reagan but not how to defeat Bill Clinton.