In many ways, David Remnick's new book, "The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama," is very much like its subject: even-handed, eloquent, beautifully packaged.
The reviewer was Susan Jane Gilman, author of a book called Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven. She liked the Remnick book, but felt that much of it was already familiar and too recent to feel like history. She ended with this:
The Bridge may be ahead of its time. The events in it are so well-known right now that its scholarship may resonate better in 20 years, after Obama's presidency has truly become history. Future generations who haven't just lived through what the book documents may find it riveting.
The Bridge, in short, may be like young wine: requiring time for its full value and quality to emerge. Or, it may be like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: a massive achievement that may have been issued prematurely.
