Portrait of a Strange, Kind, Terrible and Heroic Man

Title: The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Author: Robert A. Caro
Hosts: Gail and Shirley at Open Book

Named by The New York Times as one of the 10 best books of the year, this fourth volume in Robert A. Caro's mammoth study of Lyndon Baines Johnson is weighty by every measure. At 736 pages in the hardcover version and 21164 locations in the Kindle version, Caro's book challenges the reader to commit. From Michael Schaub's National Public Radio review: "Caro has once again shown that he might well be the greatest presidential historian we've ever had...Although the amount of research Caro has done for these books is staggering, it's his immense talent as a writer that has made his biography of Johnson one of America's most amazing literary achievements...Caro's chronicle is as absorbing as a political thriller...There's not a wasted word, not a needless anecdote..."

President Lyndon Baines Johnson

Insights and Opinions

+ Reading this book just after having seen the movie Lincoln while living through the current political gridlock in Washington made for a richer experience than would otherwise have been the case -- and a richer conversation. The more things change, we acknowledged, the more they stay the same.
+ Caro's work covers a time arc of just a few months, principally surrounding the Kennedy assassination and Lyndon Johnson's first steps in moving into the presidency with a grim determination to keep the nation and the world calm while moving critical legislation forward. But informative flashbacks and flash-forwards ground the reader both in LBJ's roots and his future challenges.
+ None of us had read any of the prior Caro works in this series, and none felt as if they had missed something. The book stands on its own.
+ Caro's writing style is elegant -- excellent, clean prose, and short sentences that carry their own power. The book is a page-turner.
+ This is a fascinating look at a complex man. At once, LBJ was strange, kind, terrible, important, and venial. Caro exposes how Johnson's early poverty and public humiliation at the hands of unkind neighbors who took more than a little pleasure in his father's downfall informed his political and personal life.
+ The hatred and disdain levied against Johnson by the Kennedy administration is hair-raising and horrifying, especially when compared to the level at which Vice President Joseph Biden has been invited in to the daily workings of the current administration.

Oddments and Telling Details

+ Every time we meet to discuss what we've read, turns out somebody has had personal experience with the topic. This night was no exception, with one of our members sharing memories of dinner at the White House, a tipped-over chair, Gregory Peck, and a kind escort from the room by President Johnson himself.
+ As supporting materials, we scanned through a November 30, 1963, issue of Life Magazine, which included a chilling pictorial of the Kennedy assassination and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald as well as a look back at the Camelot years, an inquiry into "Who is Lyndon Johnson?" and coverage of the civil rights riots also taking place at the time. Then, we had to spend some time arguing about whether things are really worse today.