George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee
Parmet (Richard Nixon and His America, LJ 12/89) spent six years researching and writing this biography. Bush gave him complete access to his papers and personal correspondence and granted several interviews, from which Parmet has constructed a comprehensive, sympathetic portrait. Bush's career as a successful player in the world of Texas politics and oil is interestingly retold, as is the complicated, sordid relationship between CIA director Bush and Panamanian drug dealer and sometimes CIA operative Manuel Noriega. Bush is praised for his military success in the Gulf War and his diplomatic finesse toward the former Soviet Union. Ultimately, decides the author, Bush was denied a second term because he alienated the Republican Right Wing and appeared indifferent to the economic plight of workers. This fine narrative would have been improved by an analytical summation of Bush's legacy and a comparison to other modern presidents. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.