Books

Woodward's Propelling Narrative

Michiko Kakutani: Obama's Wars has great color.

Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward's new book has found its way into the hands of The New York Times' sharp-eyed book reviewer Michiko Kakutani. It seems to have passed muster. Kakutani says that while the narrative is familiar and while there are better books out there to learn how we got into Afghanistan in the first place, Obama's Wars provides color on the administration's negotiations not yet recorded. "Like all Woodward books, Obama’s Wars plows relentlessly forward like a shark," Kakutani writes. Ultimately it’s the administration's constant backbiting which while unsurprising leaves the most lasting impression. According to Kakutani, "much pettiness, in-fighting and score-settling...stand in awful contrast to the sobering realities of a nearly nine-year-old war that has already claimed more than 1,000 American lives."