Peggy NoonanReseñas

I just finished reading John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father by Peggy Noonan. I had reading a book about Pope John Paul II on my "to do" list for a long time. Earlier I had read her book What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era. Both books left me somewhat cold for similar reasons. Frankly, when she exceeds essay or article length, she becomes disorganized and loses focus. I expected better this time and was again disappointed. I added to the first paragraph of the review: "The book is a combination of an (almost) hagiography mixed down with an annoying amount of "author intrusions" concerning her views on various theological and political issues."

Pope John Paul II was a historical great. He was unusually courageous during the Holocaust in maintaining close friends among Jewish people. As Pope, on behalf of the Vatican he recognized the State of Israel. Noon diluted the greatness of her subject with personal meanderings. Indeed, a few times she said, in the book, "now, let's return to John Paul." Nowhere was there discussion of the sheer bravery in befriending Jews during Holocaust-era Poland, the country with the highest ratio of its Jews murdered. The book did admirably cover the Church's pedophilia scandals. The book also gave a surprisingly good overview of Europe's manic self-immolation in the course of two world wars.

The timing of my reading the Peggy Noonan book was the completion of Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, by James Carroll. Constantine's Sword was a powerful history of the Roman Catholic Church. About the only thing it didn't mention was the pedophilia scandals and the high-living lifestyle of some of the Archbishops and Cardinals. Both of those were discussed by Peggy Noonan, so I have to give the book a "three." I will say I almost put the book down until the chapter on the pedophilia scandals, called "The Great Shame." The drawback of the book is I still feel that I don't know as much about John Paul as I wanted to.

Peggy was a speechwriter for Presidents Reagan and Bush. I will buck the general adulation for this book. A bit too much "stream of consciousness" writing for me. I would have expected more from someone who writes rather well for the Wall Street Journal. That being said I plan to read her book about Pope John Paul II when the libraries reopen.

Let the record show that I loved Peggy's [b:When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan|83060|When Character Was King A Story of Ronald Reagan|Peggy Noonan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440334440s/83060.jpg|1194409].

I read this book because Dana Perino spoke highly of it in [b:And the Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side|22875469|And the Good News Is... Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side|Dana Perino|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1422812040s/22875469.jpg|42439921]. And I have 4 things to say:

1: What revolution, Ms. Noonan? There wasn't much in here about any revolution. And maybe it's because I didn't live through it that I didn't get it but I thought the title was misleading and showcased a manipulated government that didn't care much for it's constituents-- just about keeping them.

2: Ms. Noonan is very talented in regards to writing and speaking. I have heard her speak in public and, as mentioned previously, really liked her other book on Reagan. So what was with all of those parentheses? and the random snippets of experiences? and the (seemingly) unfounded admiration of Reagan. Give me proof, positive facts, and solid experiences that provide a foundation for these beliefs. And, if the asides in parentheses take more than a couple of sentences, write a chapter, dedicate a section, do something besides letting the parentheses take up pages of a section.

3: It was incredibly enlightening (If you're reading Uncle Brad, stop now). I came away from the book loving Reagan as a person but really cynical about the political process. It makes me want to know who really calls the shots and roll my eyes when people rhapsodize about that era. Politics are a mess and I'm pretty sure those Constitutional Convention-ers didn't want party-heads and chiefs-of-staff to run policy. Cause we don't vote for those.

4: The tone comes across as expressing an unhealthy obsession with Reagan the person. Just saying.

I picked up this book because Peggy Noonan spoke at a university forum and I was impressed with her clarity and observation.

I continue to be impressed.

This definitely isn't a thorough step-by-step 900-pager like Team of Rivals, but it paints you a lovely picture of a man. She really wants you to love him and writes to that end, so much so that I shed tears when I read about the incident 9 weeks after his election...

(for those of you who were born after the fact, like myself, I won't spoil it)

The author brings her sharp observations, acute sensibility, warmth, and wit to the life of the pope and shows the personal effect his journey had upon her and millions of others. Written with heart and depth, this is at once a moving elegy and a brilliant celebration of a man whose life taught others how to live.

Story read by the author, Peggy Noonan, speech writer for Ronald Reagan. I read this for the second time. The book does examine the Reagan era but it also gives the reader a look at growing up in America in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Peggy Noonan was born in a liberal family. She attended college and got a job as writer for CBS. She then got a job as speech writer for president Reagan. Rating: 3.13

Complete bios of John Paul have already been written. I enjoyed listening to Noonan describe her personal journey and John Paul's influence on her life, yet there was enough meat about John Paul to keep it from being all about her. I learned some things about John Paul that I didn't know, many of which made me smile. What a great man and pope. The author does a great job narrating her book.

American politics

I had always found that most of the speeches written by Peggy Noonan were unique, thoughtful and sometimes inspiring. Others have given this book decent reviews, so I was curious.

Not a bad book. Loosely organized chronologically and by general topic. I think Noonan starting background at CBS with Dan Rather then heading into the Reagan White House was an interesting path. She writes in a sometimes choppy and maybe abbreviated style.

I enjoyed some of the smaller observations she made about her environment and others:
- Used Executive Office Building furniture. It seems the junior staffer always get the cruddy old used stuff. This got mentioned several times.
- Several senior WH staffers get some defining observations (good and bad).
- As an up and coming woman, she seemed to be an odd duck in the male dominated staff at the WH in the mid-80's.
- The nut roll of staffing out a major draft speech was the epitome of bureaucracy.
- Though she was not at the WH when Iran-Contra unfolded, her impressions of Oliver North when she first came across him were interesting to read.

As I continue to see Noonan on TV political roundtables during this current election season, this book helps to paint a picture of her background and to appreciate where she comes from with her commentary.

Something different. I would recommend the book for those with any political interest.½

Read this in honor of the Sept 11 anniversary. Glad I did. Peggy Noonan is such a brilliant essayist. My favorite by far was From September 11 to Eternity. This book chronicles her writings that she wrote, one per week, from September 11, 2001 to September 11, 2002. Her essays make you feel like she is sitting in the room with you and the two of you are talking. That is what makes these essays so meaningful.

Even if I was a fan of Ronald Reagan, this simpering biography would probably have still made me upchuck. Particularly amusing was the foreword where Noonan, in 2001, predicts that George W. Bush would become one of the greatest presidents the US has ever seen. I bet she wants to take that back now. A good biography does not oversell someone's successes and skim over their faults. This book does both.

In the main, this book’s mission is two-fold. First, it give us a closer look at Pope John Paul, now a canonized saint, and fills out much of the details to enable us to see his greatness, both as a pope and as a human being journeying toward heaven. We begin to get a glimpse of why he is indeed John Paul the Great. We observe in him great courage and skill, along with real human tenderness and humility. He has astounding faith and trust in God. This we see coupled with his very high regard for the human person. He is one of the greatest advocates for human dignity. He demonstrates this through great compassion and understanding. Peggy. Noonan gives a portrait of a man who is devoted to God; one who relies on God’s grace to accomplish his papal mission.

The second mission has Peggy Noonan as its focus although not without reserve and humility. It’s about her journey in the Christian faith - - her transformation from one who barely acknowledges God to one who yields more completely to God. It's a story of conversion with Pope John Paul being the earthly catalyst to bring her to conversion. This happens as she observed John Paul The Great over several decades including occasions when she encounters him in closer proximity with other pilgrims. She comes to see him for what he is - a spiritual Father. For some this could be monotonous reading but not for those who cherish observing how God stoops to bring his children close to himself.½

"In a time of malice he was not malicious; in a time of lies he did not falsify; in a time of great pressure he didn't bend or break; in a time of disingenuousness he was clear and candid about where he stood and why. And in a time when people just gave up after awhile and changed the subject, he remained on the field for the long haul."

I had seen this book on a number of reading lists of people whom I admire and so it has been on my "to read" shelf for some time. I knew when I read this quote, that this was a book that I wanted to review well and from my heart.

When Character Was King, by Peggy Noonan

I have always admired Ronald Reagan. He stands out in my memory and in my heart as a great man who always reminded me just a little bit of my grandfather. His voice I can bring to mind in an instant, whereas the tone and timbre of most other presidents of my lifetime I would have to struggle to recall. (and some I would prefer to forget)

I was never a fan of Nancy, though looking back now I see, to a large extent, not only did I give little grace to her but I also fell for the mass media's caricature of who she was and I am sorry for that.

Every once in a long while, there is a book that touches my heart in deep and unexpected ways. This was one of those. I believe that it is, perhaps, a combination of factors that made this so. Not the least of which is that Peggy Noonan is a gifted writer who knew and worked for Ronald Reagan.

I was 15 when he was elected, 16 when he was shot and 23 when he left office. He was president in the years when I began to think about and care about politics to any degree.

I saw him handle national safety issues with authority, national disasters with compassion, foreign relations with a firm stance and an assurance of who were as a nation. I grew up during the height of the Cold War, when the nuclear arms and capabilities of the USSR were a clear and present danger. Ronald Reagan, seizing opportunity as the leadership of the "evil empire" changed, went from firm to diplomatic to historic agreements with Gorbachev and the world became a less frightening place. President Reagan was a leader who made me proud to be an American citizen.

"Years ago, thinking about his humor, I said it seemed to me that wit penetrates and humor envelops, that wit seems a function of verbal intelligence while humor is imagination operating on good nature. I still think that, and think Reagan was a man of abundant humor with a great appreciation for comedy."

I loved this quote as well and dog-earred the page to return to when writing this review, as a did to page after page, only later recalling that it was a library book. I think this was a great part of the reason that Ms. Noonan and other biographers were hard pressed to find a single individual, even those politically opposed to him, that disliked Ronald Reagan.

He had it right in so many way, reading some of his speeches now, brings tears to my eyes as I wonder how things have gone so wrong now. The speech that was televised October 27th, 1954, when he was stumping for Barry Goldwater, remains one of his finest.

I quote it here extensively because it is so deeply relevant for today.

"I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines.
No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of it's national income. Today, thirty-seven cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector's share, and yet our government continues to spend seventeen million dollars a day more than the government takes in...
The idea that the government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self- government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than wee can plan them ourselves.
You and I are increasingly told that we have to choose between a left or a right. There is only an up or down: up to man's age-old dream-- the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarianism motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."

And the brilliant Westminster Speech so starkly contrasted by current president Obama's "Apology Tour". The United States under Ronald Reagan was a time of recovered and renewed economy and morale.

It wraps up for me in his own address as he spoke to the nation for the final time as President of the United States. " ..that's what it was to be an American in the 1980's. We stood, again, for freedom. I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again, and in a way ourselves, rediscovered it."

Ms. Noonan puts it thus, beautifully, "He had courage. He always tried to do what he thought was right. And when doing what was right demanded from him great effort or patience or tenacity, or made his the focus of unending attacks and criticism, he summoned from within the patience and the tenacity and the courage to face it all. To face it down. And when his great work was finished he left and went peacefully home.
These are among the things that made him for an ordinary man, but a most extraordinary man indeed."

As a tribute to a man and a record of a time entirely gone, it would behoove you to read this book.

This was a great book about Ronald Reagan. What struck me so much about it is how relevant his philosophy is towards today's economic woes, despite the fact it was written in 2001. It's impossible not to compare the past climates in 1964 and again in 1979 with today's huge deficit and general malaise in the country. Among some of the things that struck me was his desire to reduce the size of an unwieldy and ineffectual government, hearkening back to the original intent of the U.S.'s founding fathers. His plan to reduce taxes in order to promote growth in the economy made perfect sense and was successful (Kennedy did this as well and well, what do you know? It works!) Rather than raise taxes which hurts the economy, growth led to the boom in America that lasted from the Reagan years all the way through the Clinton years. So much of what Reagan was saying way back in his first political speech for Goldwater in 1964 made sense and he kept at it, never deviating from his original intent. Did he use polls to make decisions? Never! I could go on an on. Beautifully written homage to Reagan from Noonan, whose writing tugs at your heartstrings, bringing up so much emotion and genuine fondness for this great president. Beginning with his birth and childhood, his days in Hollywood and SAG president, the governorship of CA and through the presidency leading up to his sad years with Alzheimer's - all in a simple and seemingly effortless prose. This book is full of lessons of what is wrong economically with the U.S. now.½

This is a good book, in spots - at least it was for me. Peggy Noonan is an experienced speechwriter and speaker, but this book definitely emphasizes the speechwriting aspect. Though the (refurbished) title echoes Zinnser's, "On Writing Well", I think a more accurate title is, "On Speechwriting Well". There are some useful tidbits here and there on delivery, but the most useful parts focus on the writing. The downside: maybe a bit too much about politics, Reagan, and Dole - but that's her experience and her perspective, so it's reasonable, but felt like a bit too much at times.

From reading Peggy Noonan's op-eds over the years, I've come to the conclusion that I like reading her when she likes her story. And she hates anything Clinton. While I like some of the facts discussed in the book, overall I found it to be a bit catty.

A warm, endearing portrait of "The Great Communicator," Ronald Reagan. Noonan, a former co-worker of Dan Rather and, later, a speech writer for Ronald Reagan, tackles the controversial legacy of President Reagan. Was he senile, as some said, or was he a good administrator who knew how to delegate and trust? Was he just an actor or was he a man of character? These and many more issues are addressed in Peggy's enduring review of the man who intimidated some and endeared himself to all. Worth the $4 it costs to get a copy from Amazon, it's a book you'll probably not want to put down.

As a reminder of his sense of humor, something his detractors couldn't or wouldn't understand, Peggy relates his comment shortly after a particular international crisis. He hadn't been woken up in the middle of the night and his critics were aghast at this lack of concern. Reagan responded with his usual humor, "I've laid down the law to my staff, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: No matter what time it is, wake me --- even if it's the middle of a cabinet meeting."

Though her politics, her insane desire for social progress to reverse, and her obvious antipathy for anyone with a college degree make me want to chop off my hands and bleed to death, this is still a useful, educational, and yes, witty and well written account of the Reagan White House - most particularly in regards to the art of writing in a political fishbowl.

Well writen. A beautiful insight of the great Pope of our lifetime.

This book has helped me in struggle with public speaking.

I read this book because I like Peggy Noonan. Hillary Clinton is, of course, the devil, but why write a book about it? I can't really recommend this as a book to read for good information. As Noonan is a notorious conservative, you'd do well to be watchful for a slant in the facts.

Biography of Ronald Reagan from a gifted writer who knew him well.

One of the best books I've ever read. Memoir...one of my favorite genres. And an inside look at the Reagan White House. Highly recommended. You will appreciate Noonan's writing style.½

Couldn't finish it. This one isn't as good as "What I Saw at the Revolution," which I recommend most highly.

This is a different Peggy Noonan from the earlier author who wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan. Then she was inspirational and optimistic. Today she is pragmatic and bordering on pessimistic. I agree with her premise that we must all hold hands and help each other down the stairs, starting now, which will make it easier to do when it gets to the point at which we must. It's time to look beyond partisan politics and gotcha journalism and find our similarities. We must build on our commonalities, our love of America and our hopes for its future rather than drag our politics opponents through the mud.
She didn't quite say it, but I will: Barack Obama has the potential for being that sort of leader. He cannot do it alone. He'll need everyone to work together to heal our economy, restore our national reputation and resolve the very serious issues that will face us in our future.
He's got my vote and my prayers.