The Book Stacks

Mr. JM is stepping in today as my special guest reviewer.

Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton by Kathleen Willey - Guest Book Review
By Mr. JM

When I think back to the Clinton scandal times, I’m sorry to say Kathleen Lilley doesn’t loom anywhere near as large as Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones or Linda Tripp. That may be due to Kathleen doing her best to stay out of the limelight and to display more honour than those who were in the White House seem capable of.

Before this book my view was that Clinton was the usual power-hungry political animal, with all the trappings that follow, including lust and that Tripp had sicced Lewinsky onto him to exploit his weakness and trap him in a scandal. That Lewinsky had kept the blue dress with semen stains all that time, unwashed in her cupboard, proved to me that she had set out to bring him down. Tripp I saw as being the manipulator behind the scene, maybe specifically placed there by those against Clinton.

So I approached reading this book with some interest. And it didn’t let me down. There is evidence there to confirm my worst fears of just how self-centered and self-aggrandizing are those we put in power. I’ve believed in something I heard many years back but don’t know how to bring about in our world – ‘The people who actively want power are the last ones who should be allowed to have it!’

The book is written well, carrying a reader along on a journey of pain, betrayal and exposure to things a lot of folk will have difficulty not automatically discrediting in their minds. It details the life Kathleen has led, the courage she found to stand up to things and the personal integrity of a woman who gives more than lip service to her personal ethics.

A couple of points about the book. Somehow Kathleen has managed to lift herself out of the anger, pain and anguish she must have felt during all this – but my personal feeling is she has backed away a little too far. The narrative could use a little more personal pain to let the reader into her world. Empathy is important to the author-reader relationship and I felt Kathleen to be a little remote in her story.

Also, I found the time line to be a bit confusing in that in several places it takes a moment to realize Kathleen is repeating earlier information with a different point of view. I’m not sure I know a better way to address the story from its different facets, so, as you read, just be aware that some information gets repeated later on.

I don’t know if I can say I enjoyed the book – having one’s worst fears about those who rule us confirmed isn’t a particularly enjoyable feeling – but I am glad she wrote it and that I read it. Hopefully now that Hilary Clinton is no longer a candidate, Kathleen will find more peace in her life.

While I am personally cynical about career politicians and their motives, reading this book makes me very glad that the most powerful nation on the planet is not going to have Hilary Clinton at its helm, this time around at least. And hopefully by next elections, either enough people will have read this book to stop her then or Hilary herself will have imploded – surely even consummate hypocrites can’t hold their false face together in public for so long?