John McCain: An American Odyssey - Softcover

Timberg, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068486794X ISBN 13: 9780684867946

Publisher: Fireside, 1999

Synopsis

Focuses on the senator's Naval Academy education, his years as a POW during the Vietnam war, and his presidential bid

About this title

Review:

If, as you're reading John McCain: An American Odyssey, you feel a sense of déjà vu, don't be alarmed--you may very well have read this book before. Robert Timberg has extracted from his 1995 book The Nightingale's Song, which dealt with several Naval Academy graduates who went on to serve in Vietnam, those passages that involved Senator John McCain, a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential elections. To this Timberg has added some new, updated material.

Roughly half of this story is covered in McCain's own memoir, Faith of My Fathers, including McCain's early military career and an internment in a North Vietnamese POW camp that lasted nearly six years. But it's presented here from an objective, journalistic perspective (and Timberg's own stint at Annapolis informs the sections on the Naval Academy immeasurably). But there's also strong material on McCain's political career, from his first campaigns in Arizona through the dark days of his involvement in the "Keating Five" scandal of the early '90s up to his role in 1999 as a critic of American involvement in the NATO attack on Serbia (which, McCain said, wasn't strong enough).

About the Author:

Robert Timberg is the author of The Nightingale's Song and John McCain, An American Odyssey. He served with the First Marine Division in South Vietnam from March 1966 to February 1967. He has worked at The Baltimore Sun for three decades as a reporter, editor and White House correspondent. Currently deputy chief of the Sun's Washington bureau, he lives in Bethesda, Md.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fireside
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 068486794X
• ISBN 13: 9780684867946
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240