David Remnick is a hell of a writer. The Bridge is about as straightforward a book as I’ve ever read. It tells an honest story of Obama at his best and his worst: success and humiliation, behavior both laudable and dubious. He appears as a serious-minded, ambitious, and very complicated man, working hard to put together an identity and find his place in the world. His story is told in quick, addictive prose. This makes the onslaught of detail comprehensible, and the imposing length of the book endurable.
It’s worth noting that The Bridge is really a work of journalism, rather than biography or history. Remnick himself spoke of it this way in his appearance on the Daily Show, and indicated that his intent was to fill people in on a man who has become such an important political and cultural figure1. To this end, The Bridge goes to great lengths to fill out the context of Obama’s life— the people and places that have shaped him. There are reasons that Obama made the splash he did, dynamics at work that made it possible for him to be where he is now. In order to understand the United States, the kind of nation it is and is becoming, those dynamics to be understood and accounted for. For this reason if none other, The Bridge deserves considerable attention.
- Episode of 8/4/2010 [↩]