Colin Powell

Some very interesting vignettes of one of Maine's most successful politicians. Where it falls down, and perhaps this was the reviewers misplaced expectations, was being an actual memoir, with a inner look at some of the more difficult aspects of life in the public eye. Besides the honest look at growing up poor in Maine, the sketches from Washington mostly glossed over his failures, highlighting how spectacular the wins were ending nearly all of them talking about how complicated humans are. Quaint, but unsatisfying for someone who has been through very difficult times. Personally I wouldn't put “A Memoir” in the title and instead refer to it as sketches of a life, or something like that. This is not really a memoir, or at least a very incomplete one.