FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

British historian Roy Jenkins has written a fascinating biography of FDR the president and FDR the person. While FDR's greatness as a president is generally accepted, his personal life also bears detailed scrutiny, not always favorable. This is not a dry historical summary, and reader Richard Rohan makes the most of it. He narrates with the authority of a reporter and the emotions of a commentator who has discovered his subject's darkest secrets. Unfortunately, Jenkins died in 2003 before finishing this book; thus, it is relatively short, and this abridgment is even shorter. (Other abridgments in this series, all edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., are much longer.) D.J.S.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 04]