One-hundred pages in and I was completely invested in Laura Bush's autobiography. The writing was touching and I kept wondering how much of it was actually written by her because it was so impressive. The way she described her mother's miscarriages and her own infertility as well as the joy she reaped from working in libraries and with children was beautiful. These lines are examples of what was really touching: "For an absence, for someone who was never there at all, we are wordless to capture that particular emptiness. For those who deeply want children and are denied them, those missing babies hover like silent, ephemeral shadows over their lives. Who can describe the feel of a tiny hand that is never held?"
And then, she met George again at age 30, got married in four months, and the book became really boring. She mentions that her family were long-time democrats, but somehow she never mentions that intriguing piece of her life again. She tells George she is not interested in politics, and they begin their married life by campaigning for a spot for him in Congress. And she really never speaks anymore about that. Does she suddenly become interested in politics? I'm not really sure. The last 3/4 of the book did not feel like it was "spoken from the heart," but instead from a scheduler's book with two lines about each event. It felt tedious and it felt boring. How could the life of a First Lady be boring? Somehow Laura manages to make it sound boring. And I still never really saw the bond she has with her husband. I'm sure it's there, but I wanted to see it. She's got it with her daughters and that was clear, but there weren't enough touching moments about her husband. Perhaps I was looking for too much--wanting to know what would make a liberal librarian without an interest in politics fall for George Bush. I still don't know, but perhaps that's a secret to be kept between them.
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