A scoop-rich biography released on the heels of his Senate retirement announcement ... Coppins gained extraordinary access to Romney’s private journals, texts and emails and was granted hours of interviews with Romney over two years. The tell-all details gush forth ... Many readers will come for the juicy scoops and score-settling, but the book also tries to do something more important: Coppins raises probing questions about how much Republicans like Romney were complicit in the rise of Trump.
Revealing ... In many ways a straightforward biography, but it has the intimacy of a small subgenre of political confessions ... The depicted 'reckoning' is actually lifelong and, more important, something that has always been made from within.
The message of Romney: A Reckoning is not uplifting ... Coppins saw this project as a way for Mr. Romney to come to grips with his place in American history. That is not quite how things worked out. The book is instead a reminder that meritocratic success in business is not easily translatable into democratic politics. What lessons should one draw from a wealthy, talented and decent man who attempts to lead a political party in the throes of a populist revolt? Above all, take care not to sacrifice one’s family, faith and integrity.
How satisfying is the full 400-page meal? It’s occasionally interesting and often a little bland, like Romney himself ... Romney’s prodigious and at times cloying self-awareness is very much on display in this book, which feels more like a ghostwritten autobiography than a biography of record. Romney shared a vast trove of his personal email and much of his personal journal with Coppins, a fellow Mormon ... One downside of Romney: A Reckoning is the reckoning part ... The biggest disappointment in this book proves to be Romney himself. I’ve been a fan, indeed voted for him twice, but the book made me less of one.
Coppins’s authorized biography has given the pundit class an excuse to eulogize his career—which Romney can enjoy from the comfort of his Senate office and not beyond the grave ... Romney’s rather sincere take on political horse-trading explains both his best and worst moments ... Coppins extracts...some of the most humanizing images of Romeny to date.
is new book is a must-read for anyone interested in how the Republican party morphed from the party of Lincoln into a Trumpian mess, picking up where Coppins left off in The Wilderness, his earlier look at the GOP ... Engaging.
The writing is solid, and the author provides a useful study of a man who, witnessing the disintegration of his party into demagoguery and lies, decided to stand for the truth. A vigorous, highly readable account of politics—and ethics—in action.
