Reviews
On the occasion of what would have been the former president's 100th birthday, his youngest son, Ron Reagan, has written a deeply felt memoir--a memoir that underscores the bafflement his own children often felt about their father...Ron Reagan, who writes in charming, lucid prose, clearly wants to try to know his father., Ronald Reagan's son seeks to understand his father by researching his formative years...Recounting of the post-presidential decline because of dementia is honest and compelling, whatever the reader's assessment of the White House years. A worthy memoir., Sometimes in awe of while sometimes bemused by his 'square' of a dad, Ron [Reagan] delivers what many others have not, a down-the-middle portrait that admirers of his father and some memoir fans will likely enjoy., My Father at 100 is an affectionate, often lighthearted account of a son's attempt to uncover his father's character by going back to his early days., There's no better biography about Ronald Reagan than this one. Not only does the president's son reveal splendid insights, including the origin of the nickname 'Dutch,' but his narration is sublime. When the son quotes his father, he catches the timbre and cadence of President Reagan...Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award., Reagan's beautifully written memoir is a conflicted tribute to a distant, almost mythical figure...The son fares well in his first book-length foray, telling a surprisingly detailed story of his ancestors, analyzing examples of his father's heroic exploits, and relating touching accounts of his final years.
Synopsis
February 6, 2011, was the one hundredth anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. To mark the occasion, Ron Reagan wrote My Father at 100, an intimate look at the life of his father--one of the most popular presidents in American history--told from the perspective of someone who knew Ronald Reagan better than any advisor, friend, or colleague. As he grew up under his father's watchful gaze, he observed the very qualities that made the future president a powerful leader. Yet for all of their shared experiences of horseback rides and touch football games, there was much that Ron never knew about his father's past, and in My Father at 100 he sets out to understand this beloved, if often enigmatic figure who turned his early tribulations into a stunning political career. Since his death in 2004, President Reagan has been a galvanizing force that personifies the values of an older America and represents an important era in national history. Ron Reagan traces the sources of these values in his father's early years and offers a heartfelt portrait of a man and his country--and his personal memories of the president he knew as "Dad."