Robert Draper: Interviewed about his biography of Bush
Revelations from "Dead Certain," Robert Draper's new biography of President George W. Bush, have received marquee play since the book's publication on Sept. 4. The disclosures have ranged from the petty -- Bush, a stickler for punctuality, once locked a late Colin Powell out of a meeting -- to the momentous. Among the more uncomfortable for the White House: Bush's claim that Paul Bremer, head of Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority, made the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi army without Bush's knowledge, an assertion rapidly rebutted by Bremer.
What Draper, a writer for GQ, really does with great skill in "Dead Certain," however, is debunk caricatures of George Bush, both positive and negative. Draper, who first spoke to Bush for GQ in 1998, did six additional interviews with Bush for the book and had access to the president's inner circle. In place of the dimwitted boogeyman of the left and the resolute hero of the right, Draper introduces a three-dimensional man full of contradictions. His George Bush is charming, petulant, open and insecure, smart but allergic to inconvenient facts.
On Friday, Salon spoke with Draper about "Dead Certain," his many encounters with George Bush, whether he likes the president personally, and how some former White House staffers have responded to the book's ambiguous, often unflattering portrait.
[Question] Newsweek headlined its article about your book "A Biographer Off Message" and called you "Bush's wayward biographer." How do you feel about that characterization, or the sense that you somehow got access to the Bush White House and then burned your sources, including the president?
[Answer] It's a little bit silly, because it presupposes that I had some kind of handshake deal with the White House and have broken that. I did have a deal with the White House, and that is that I would write a fair-minded, nonjudgmental literary narrative of Bush's presidency, and I think I've delivered that. I do think that the writer of that piece, Richard Wolffe, whom I know and admire, is right that the book has thrown the White House off message when Bush is trying to turn the page on a lot of things. That's not my book's intention. Its intention is to be a lasting book, and I told the president that when I was making my pitch to him -- a book that was not just for and about the news cycle. But I have to say that I am grateful that it's in the news cycle, and I'm glad that people are interested in it and talking about it, and that has the consequence of reporters asking the White House questions about it, too. That sort of comes with the territory....
Read entire article at Salon
What Draper, a writer for GQ, really does with great skill in "Dead Certain," however, is debunk caricatures of George Bush, both positive and negative. Draper, who first spoke to Bush for GQ in 1998, did six additional interviews with Bush for the book and had access to the president's inner circle. In place of the dimwitted boogeyman of the left and the resolute hero of the right, Draper introduces a three-dimensional man full of contradictions. His George Bush is charming, petulant, open and insecure, smart but allergic to inconvenient facts.
On Friday, Salon spoke with Draper about "Dead Certain," his many encounters with George Bush, whether he likes the president personally, and how some former White House staffers have responded to the book's ambiguous, often unflattering portrait.
[Question] Newsweek headlined its article about your book "A Biographer Off Message" and called you "Bush's wayward biographer." How do you feel about that characterization, or the sense that you somehow got access to the Bush White House and then burned your sources, including the president?
[Answer] It's a little bit silly, because it presupposes that I had some kind of handshake deal with the White House and have broken that. I did have a deal with the White House, and that is that I would write a fair-minded, nonjudgmental literary narrative of Bush's presidency, and I think I've delivered that. I do think that the writer of that piece, Richard Wolffe, whom I know and admire, is right that the book has thrown the White House off message when Bush is trying to turn the page on a lot of things. That's not my book's intention. Its intention is to be a lasting book, and I told the president that when I was making my pitch to him -- a book that was not just for and about the news cycle. But I have to say that I am grateful that it's in the news cycle, and I'm glad that people are interested in it and talking about it, and that has the consequence of reporters asking the White House questions about it, too. That sort of comes with the territory....