‘Joe Biden: American Dreamer’ by Evan Osnos: Book Review

Joe Biden: American Dreamer is a short biography of President-Elect Joe Biden, who will take the oath of office on the 20th of January 2021 as the 46th President of the United States of America. It is written by National Book Award-winning American writer and journalist Evan Osnos. The book chronicles in a concise manner the ideals, achievements, failures, losses, actions, and personality of the 46th President of the United States of America. It is a non-partisan book and looks at Joe Biden’s role in American politics in an unbiased way. Osnos focuses both on Biden’s failures and losses and his successes and winnings as a politician who has served the USA for five long decades. Joe Biden has spent a significant portion of his life serving America’s people in the political sector. Joe Biden: American Dreamer is an excellent and concise book for anyone, especially political science and autobiography lovers who want to learn about the person that is Joe Biden. The book is a tiny little thing, and I wish it had more content because it is so well written that you want more of it. For those unfamiliar with American politics but want to learn more about Joe Biden, this is the book for you. I gave Osnos’s book five stars on Goodreads. He deserves those stars because Evan notes down the critical and significant events of Joe Biden’s life, which has made him the most surprising President-Elect the USA has ever had.

Osnos dwells a little on Joe Biden’s childhood and then his first wife and three children Beau, Hunter, and Naomi. His first wife and his baby daughter Naomi died early, leaving Joe Biden as a single parent for five long years till he met his present wife, Jill Tracy Jacobs, now First Lady Elect Jill Biden. The book brings out the feelings and emotional turmoil that Biden and his family experienced due to these sad events. Osnos evocatively brings out the pain Joe Biden felt because of his son Beau’s loss due to a rare brain tumor and the family’s turmoil because Hunter, his other son, was addicted to drugs. The personal life of Joe Biden and his many sorrows made him the patient man he is today. It also made him a person who was unpredictable where his tactile feelings and show of affection was concerned. As reported by Osnos, Biden has a good heart but tends to overdo many things, and yes, he has made many people uncomfortable by the exaggerations. These exaggerations have been dealt with in a small way in this book.

The book titled Joe Biden: American Dreamer also briefly chronicles how Biden ascended the political ladder, his role in the Senate, the laws he passed, and the laws to which he did not consent. Osnos pens the mistakes and Biden’s success stories in a clinical manner that needs to be appreciated and applauded. It is essential to read Biden’s Senate actions to truly realize how he has grown with the job and in the job. Where foreign relations are concerned, there is no one like Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s method of finding common ground for discussion and negotiations with dictators, or duly elected prime ministers and presidents gained their trust and is succinctly brought out here. The meeting with Putin and Joe Biden sent a chill crawling up my spine. That is an enlightening read, an eye-opener. Do not miss it!

Joe Biden: American Dreamer talks about Barack Obama, the 44th President of the USA, and his equation with and estimation of Biden. Obama and Biden respond differently as a person and worker. Yet, Biden was Obama’s Vice President for eight long years. Therefore, it was a surprise when Obama backed his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President. According to me, Biden’s reaction was warranted. The whole situation is well explained by Osnos, making it easier to glimpse into President Barack Obama’s mind. We realize that Obama was a man of rhetoric and ideals, ready to compromise and turn the other cheek every step of the way, which according to Osnos, is not precisely what the USA needs right now. To learn more about President Barack Obama, read my review of The Audacity of Hope. Osnos narrates the facts as he sees them. After a good study of what has happened in American politics since the Obama phase, it is evident that towards the end of Obama’s tenure, there was a dramatic shift to the right. The faults of earlier administrations like the Bush Government were glossed over. The voters held Barack Obama’s government accountable for the mess of the previous administrations. Due to Obama neglecting to focus on those lapses, the people of America became unsatisfied, and by 2016 they voted for a right-wing segregationist, President Donald Trump. To learn more about the White House situation during the Trump era, you can check out my review of A Warning by Anonymous.

During the Trump era, polarization was the norm of the day. The 45th President, Donald Trump, was a man who wanted to be the answer to that section of the White American population who had been grieved by the previous governments, including Obama’s. Osnos shows how Biden conducted himself during his time, how different a person he was from a few decades earlier, and his connections with foreign heads of government and foreign delegates. It is an exciting part of the book and makes a highly engaging read. The book also focuses on the 2020 US Presidential elections, Joe Biden’s nomination and election as the Democratic Presidential candidate, the way he conducted his debates with President Trump, his sincerity as a speaker, his promises to the people, the advice he took from his aides, the nomination of Kamala Harris as Vice President, and the entry of Obama to support Biden. The book is dramatic but also factual. It reveals that many Americans were now leaning towards the left. It shows that Biden’s promises were not precisely what he had stood for in his entire political career. One must realize that the American people were so desperate to get rid of the present government that even someone as inconsistent in his political maneuvers as Biden would do.

This part of the book brings into focus the way the Trump government failed miserably in combating the Covid-19 pandemic and how in the midst of it all, when George Floyd was mercilessly killed, how the people of America, especially the youth, came out on the streets in protest across the country. All these and more documented facts are analyzed by Joe Biden’s actions, which propelled him as the 46th President of the USA. The Black and Brown votes went to Joe Biden. Today, unlike his predecessor, he is taking a firm stand on social distancing, wearing masks, and the washing of hands to keep America safe. Only time will tell whether he will succeed in his mission and live up to his promises for which he was voted to power. However, as per the facts mentioned by Osnos, there is a bit of doubt regarding that. But since Joe Biden has always grown wiser over the years, the American people hope that he will be able to bring back America’s glory, making it the Democratic Republic looked up to by developing nations like mine.

So, do read Joe Biden: American Dreamer by Evan Osnos. It is a great book, and my only complaint is that it is too short. I wanted it to be longer and more detailed. I love Osnos’s narrative skills. I hope that he will soon pen a detailed memoir on Joe Biden. Till then, we will make do with this book. Grab your copy on your Kindle or at your nearest bookstore or library today. Support factual reporting and support Evan Osnos. I hope to read more books by Osnos soon.

I enjoyed reading and reviewing this book by American journalist Evan Osnos. I hope to read, review, and analyze more American non-fiction and fiction works until January 2021 to celebrate America’s rich literary heritage as the 2020 US Presidential Elections comes to a close. So, if you are looking for more American bookish content, keep watching this site. If you want to read a little more about my life, you can check out my bookish memoir Scenes of a Reclusive Writer & Reader of Mumbai on my blog’s products page.

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