Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan Paperback – October 24, 2000

Nice read for my collection

Highly recommend this book, and it may appeal to both fans and detractors of Reagan for different reasons.Ordered "Dutch" after seeing a PBS documentary about Reagan in which Morris was prominently featured. Morris was selected by Reagan, probably more Nancy the "Dutch", to be the official historian after Reagan read his biography of Teddy Roosevelt, "the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt". Morris was given extensive access to both Reagan and the White House including traveling to the Geneva and Reykjavík summits with Gorbachev.Morris creates a mythical "composite" character born in Chicago who crosses paths with Reagan, first in Dixon, then Eureka College and then as a writer in Hollywood, as they grow up through the same period. He then writes the biography as a first person memoir of the "composite's" life recollections of Reagan. Somewhere between Governor and President the point of view switches from "composite" to Morris; though I am not exactly sure when. The work is primarily chronological with some occasional jumps, so the transition is murky.The "composite" detests Reagan, but you are left to decide if it is driven by philosophy or envy; the slightly nerdy kid with a limp that detests the beautiful people for whom life seems so easy. In this guise he employs all the usual clichés of Reagan the "airhead", Reagan the "vacuous actor" lost without a script, Reagan the heartless of "trickle down" economics. It culminates with the "composite's" son, who joins the SDS to fight Reagan as governor of California, disappearing forever after the riots at Berkley.Some reviews I have read criticize this as a series of unsupported "cheap shots", I think it was intended more to provide some perspective on those who opposed him at the time, and how controversial Reagan was. We see Reagan, as a part of generation raised on FDR and New Deal, becoming disenchanted with big government. He left the Democratic Party and took the Reagan democrats with him.Morris in contrast, fighting to remain objective, finds himself drawn to the magnetic power of a truly great man who uses his extraordinary talents, including a photographic memory, to fulfill his destiny. The two primary foils he is pitted against are Tip O'Neil and Mikhail Gorbachev, both of whom Reagan defeats, one with an economic policy that turns around the nation , the other with SDI that wins the Cold War.However, Morris does not fawn over Reagan and deals with both Iran Contra and his physical deterioration in the second term, primarily his loss of hearing and battle with cancer. Perhaps his most interesting metaphor is Reagan as a glacier. An unstoppable force that uses people, with the exception of Nancy, like a glacier uses rocks in its path. They grind the path forward until they are discarded into the moraine while the glacier moves inexorably on.Enjoy!

After reading and thoroughly enjoying Morris' excellent books on Theodore Roosevelt, I tried to do the same with "Dutch" looking for insights into the Reagan years and the myth that Ronald Reagan has become. Indeed some insights were presented, e.g., that Reagan was shallow, glib, personally distant and cold, and perpetually acting, but I knew that already. The book offered no big revelations or new perceptions.Beyond that, the writing style (inserting the author as a lifelong friend and therefore narrator as opposed to researcher/analyst) was a mere trick, and the pseudo-chum relationship was described in a cloying manner. The deeper I went into the wordy tome, the more I found myself skipping passages. Finally, I stopped halfway through, and put the book down for good. I find that after this experience, I have no better understanding of the Reagan myth.I believe that both Reagan admirers and detractors would find this book to be of small value in furthering their useful knowledge of Reagan.

I 'kinda' like it. I started out not liking it, but it is growing better. The author knew and had some minor interactions with Dutch starting as a late teenager and then recurring up thru the presidency. There are frequent passages about the author & his life; nothing to do with Reagan. After enough I realize their point, but it was not what I expected. EM's book on Teddy Roosevelt was very good (Theodore Rex). I was hoping for the same here.

The controversy concerning the insertion of fictional characters in Dutch is an interesting one and reminds me of a couple of quotes: "LISTEN! HERE IS A STORY OF FACT AND FICTION, THE TWO ARE ALMOST ALIKE, YOU'LL NOT BE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THEM. LISTEN! TO THE RUMBLE OF THE GROUND AS IT SHAKES BENEATH YOU IN THE REMOTE DISTANCE. LISTEN! TO ANOTHER TIME. YOU ARE LISTENING, PERHAPS, FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY ..." and: "Fact can never be written about it. The only fact there is, is the here and now. After that any attempt at capturing it becomes fiction." Well, whatever. I feel that Edmund Morris made a mistake in introducing elements of fictional characters into Dutch simply because this aspect jars one into confusion at inopportune moments in the book. For me it marred the supposed reality of the biography. Authorial gymnastics is fine if it works, but here unfortunately it doesn't. A celestial type narrator would have made more sense. Also, Morris uses the fictional device as a tool to make sarcastic digs at Reagan. For instance, Morris plays a much older self and introduces Gavin, his son, and uses him as a mouthpiece for heavier criticism or opinions. The writing itself leans towards an English style rather than American, adopting an understated narrative with snide humour which the English are so keen on. Morris himself sounds like an Englishman on TV, but apparently has lived in the US since 1968, was born in Kenya, educated in Nairobi and South Africa, then worked for a number of years in London, or is this fiction? I wouldn't call Dutch a nasty work out to insult Ronald Reagan, rather it is a complimentary one. In fact he comes out of it as quite a character having achieved much. After all it was Reagan's facade and human failings that actually gave back America its much needed self-esteem, as did Margaret Thatcher for Britain. No matter what one says about either of them now they at least managed that. And however Ronald Reagan conducted himself before and during his presidency this book makes it patently clear that his cardboard image was not the real Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan had a mastery about him and he had to work hard for it, for America ... and of course for himself. Although the book is long, in my mind it's not long enough. There are several gaps in time, the Vietnam years and during the Carter era being examples. I wanted a blow by blow account of what Reagan was up to during these periods and what his thought were. All right then, was the book enjoyable? Raaather, damn fine piece of work which helps the layman to understand the workings of Ronald Reagan better than any book I've read thus far, and this is my fourth. So, on reflection Dutch by Edmund Morris might be flawed but nonetheless a brilliant book.

I enjoyed the book and certainly knew more about RR when I finished. However, I found it difficult to follow at times and felt that there was too much of the author's own life intertwined in the story at times.

A better title for this book (with apologies to Spike Milligan) might have ben: "Ronald Reagan - His Part In My Life and Times". I have never read a biography in which the author's life and preoccupations intrude so directly and obviously as in this book, with dubious and uninteresting parallels being drawn between what the author was doing contemporaneously with Reagan's childhood and adulthood. And despite its length, it failed to explain to me what was actually going on during Reagan's time as Governor and President, nor what was the context for it. A bad combination of over-long and under-explanatory.

Okay book