... at once harrowing, relentless and a determined exercise in trying to seize his own narrative from the clutches of the Republicans and the press ... given the trajectory of alcoholism, crack addiction and relationship shredding contained in the next 250 pages, it’s impossible not to see the title burdened by the weight of unintended irony ... The addiction memoir is complicated to pull off. The narrative arc is grimly predictable...Clearly, this addiction memoir mattered a lot to Biden, to tell his story and to present himself to the world as the writer he always knew he was. And yet, to make these stories rise to a different level, they require not just the candid chronicling of how-bad-it-got, but also compelling writing that delivers a measure of insight and empathy for others — such as worried family members and hotel maids who are left to clean up his messes. Near the end of his memoir, Biden describes the moment of looking into the eyes of the woman who would become his new wife, and seeing a 'reflective gaze,' by which he means one that not only truly sees him, but in which he fills up the entire field of vision. From her deep blue eyes to what was contained in them, he was struck by the similarities to the brother he lost. And somehow that provided a reason to recover for good.

... a vague sense of magical destiny and a dose of inexplicable charm ... scenes of disintegration are what lift Beautiful Things from an even-toned press release line-edited by somebody from the Democratic Party into a pretty interesting minor thriller about homelessness and drug addiction ... the best of Beautiful Things lies in the pages Biden spends with Rhea (a pseudonym), an older woman from Washington, D.C. ... Hunter (or whatever combination of ghostwriters and editors composed this book) manages to establish himself as a real human being. The advantages of his background, education as a lawyer, and clear contempt for responsibility should count against him, but the thing about addiction is that it levels people with no regard to social status, and that makes a difference to his story. Unlike the celestial owl, Hunter’s crack years do have a moral to them: the innate equivalence of all people’s worth ... Beautiful Things reminds you how powerful a force tragedy is in American electoral politics, how difficult it is to analyze, and how successfully Joe Biden has wielded its invocation in his rhetoric.

It is at times a harrowing journey. Readers who make it all the way through may feel they have completed something of a 12-step rehab program themselves. The details at times make one feel exposed to something like degradation porn ... As for the drug use, there could scarcely be a more damning account than Hunter Biden's own in his memoir ... This memoir is surely a confession, but it seems to seek something other than conventional forgiveness – something other than sympathy ... In the end, if it is not about forgiveness or sympathy, this memoir may be about making a stand. Making it clear the younger son, the black sheep of the Biden clan, wants to take whatever place on that victory stage he can occupy, as a son and a brother and the father of Beau Biden II, the new generation of hope.

... while the book affords the reader a harrowing play-by-play of his descent into depravity, that isn't what shocks the system the most. Instead, it's the ability to gaze (and, occasionally, gawk) inside the beating heart of the Biden family ... He opens the book with the death of his brother, Beau — his absence haunts most of the book. He describes him as 'the best friend I've ever had and the person I loved most in the world,' and the details he offers of their childhood bond and the way it ruled their final days and weeks together are Beautiful Things' strongest ... The result is, purposeful or not, a portrait of our current President as the ultimate Patriarch. The family, and Joe specifically, seems to command a loyalty and a devotion that feels extreme — but Succession this is not. Maybe you noticed during the election or inauguration, but this family is eerily close (pity the only child who reads this memoir) ... As open as Biden is with his losses, he's guarded about other elements ... The section that addresses his work for Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company at the heart of Donald Trump's first impeachment, feels more like an op-ed or even a script prepared for an interview. You can almost hear the conversation with a political strategist (what are we going to say about Ukraine?). The testimony feels truthful — it isn't exactly spin — but also out of place in what is otherwise a grief memoir. Biden never needed to answer for everything in one book. The same issue afflicts the third act, when Biden ties his four-year-plus long addiction spiral up with a recovery narrative ... Biden's descriptions of and reflections on his time of active addiction are harrowing, raw, and quite generously honest, and he doesn't offer that for his proclaimed happy ending. He doesn't owe us the world, but as readers, we're left to piece things together ... was written after the elder Biden's intentions to pursue the presidency were clear, and even though it releases well after any potential impact on a campaign, it's hard not to see the book's intentions as an endorsement of the Biden ethos .. For a man who claims no political ambitions, Hunter Biden sure knows how to show off a platform of decency.

This memoir. Holy hell ... This book is a sizzling mess of grief, addiction, self-justification and misdirection. It’s admirable — and also abominable ... The relationship between the brothers is the one undeniably beautiful thing in this book, which at its best is a love letter to a lost soulmate ... there’s a strange braggadocio to Hunter’s recollections ... There’s an important message buried in all this mayhem: the utter joylessness of addiction. The vodka is warm and unmixed, the fiends are nasty and vacuous, and the degradation of smoking cheddar popcorn debris in the hope it might be crack flakes is unforgettable ... glosses over many key issues. Joe Biden is a strangely distant figure, appearing rarely to provide tangible relief to his lost son. And while Hunter does discuss his controversial employment by Burisma, a Ukrainian gas firm, the scale of his involvement is carefully elided ... Why did Hunter write this chaotic memoir? Perhaps it’s because he truly wants to face down his demons and rebuild his life, but the reported $2 million advance may have played a more central role. Ultimately, for all its revelations, this book does not seem to be honest. I fear that more bumps still lie ahead.

... a book about finding light in darkness and hope in suffering ... As unbearably sad and heart-wrenching as the book often is, it is also funny, insightful, uplifting, and deeply engrossing ... Hunter spares no details about any aspect of his life, so that we feel his cautious optimism when he enters yet another rehab or recovery program and crash with him when he inevitably begins using again.

Glossed over by Beautiful Things is that while his overseas venture may have ended up at the heart of Donald Trump’s first impeachment, it also discomforted Barack Obama’s White House. Confronted with Hunter’s foray into Ukraine and the energy business, the 44th president’s spokesman, Jay Carney, declined to express support ... The younger Biden’s book shows flashes of his grasp of power politics. But he also demonstrates a continuous blind spot for his own predicament. Confession should not be conflated with self-awareness ... smoothly written and quickly paced. We know how and where the story ends. Hunter Biden appears to have found happiness in his second marriage. His father is now president.