PROMISES TO KEEP On Life and Politics

Mark Deakins gives a no-frills reading of Joe Biden’s autobiography, which he wrote for his 2008 campaign for the vice presidency. And that’s the problem. Perhaps with Biden’s own considerable charm, the narration could have risen above the limitations of the campaign biography. But Deakins’s cool delivery calls attention to the weakness of Biden’s book—dialogue that sounds unnatural and “speechifying.” Still, Biden’s story does contain undeniable poignancy, particularly related to the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter in 1972. Some of the most moving passages in the book concern the nurturing Biden received after that tragedy from Senate lions such as Mike Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey, and Ted Kennedy. Even in Deakins’s understated reading, we recognize a humanity we sometimes doubt exists on Capitol Hill. M.O. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]