Monica's Story - Softcover

Morton, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312973624 ISBN 13: 9780312973629

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1999

Synopsis

Behind the headlines, there was one fascinating woman. This is her story.

Monica Lewinsky. You know her name, you know her face, and you think you know her story: the pretty young intern who began an illicit affair with the President of the United States-- a liaison that ignited an unprecedented political scandal and found Bill Clinton as the second U.S. president to ever be impeached. But there is much more to the Monica Lewinsky story than just that. Now, Andrew Morton, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Diana: Her True Story, takes you beyond the headlines and the sound bites to discover the real Monica Lewinsky, a woman as interesting, intelligent, and misunderstood as they come.

Read Monica's Story and you'll discover:

* How a difficult childhood shaped Monica's tumultuous adult romances
* Her relationship with Bill Clinton: how she saw a side to him few know-- and why she sometimes still misses her "Handsome"
* The betrayal by Linda Tripp-- and how Monica's trusting nature snared her in Tripp's treacherous web
* The horror of Kenneth Starr's exhaustive and intrusive inquiry-- how it affected her and her family, and how it still haunts her
* Where Monica will go from here: What are her career plans? Will she realize her dream of marrying and starting a family in the wake of the scandal?
* And much, much more

With sixteen pages of photos.

About this title

Review

Though it's a legal document, the Starr Report, published in late 1998, reads like a racy novel about the most powerful man in the world, President Bill Clinton, and a young intern, Monica Lewinsky, who's portrayed as a spoiled Beverly Hills brat performing oral sex on the president while he talked to colleagues on the telephone.

Andrew Morton, the author of Diana: Her True Story, spent several months interviewing Lewinsky after the scandal broke; the result is Monica's Story, which asserts that the picture the Starr Report paints of Lewinsky is totally incorrect. Morton believes she and the president had an emotional, mutually satisfying relationship, which, if circumstances had been different, would probably have remained secret. Although he covers much of the same territory as the Starr Report, he adds details of conversations Lewinsky and Clinton had in an attempt to show the depth of the relationship. In chapters with titles like "Grunge, Granola, and Andy" and "Terror in Room 1012," he paints a portrait of a "child-woman" who is sexually liberated but also intelligent, loving, and well mannered. "[She] could be anybody's sister," he insists, "anybody's daughter."

The book is most interesting, however, in its descriptions of the political intrigue, lies, and deception resulting from Kenneth Starr's investigation. Leading the evil band is Linda Tripp, described as a black-hearted, shameless manipulator who betrayed Lewinsky and spurred the scandal for her own personal gain (she was planning to write a book about Clinton). He also examines the media's hatred for Lewinsky--particularly that of women writers who became obsessed with her weight and body shape. "Just as the O.J. Simpson trial exposed the racial fault line running through American society," he argues, "so the Monica Lewinsky saga has spotlighted the underlying misogyny that still permeates American life." Monica's Story is gripping stuff--porn, fantasy, farce, political commentary, and tragedy all rolled into one. --Dale Kneen, Amazon.co.uk

From the Publisher

Monica Lewinsky has been at the center of the most sensational political storm of our time...yet she has not said one word publicly about the scandal.

Now, in MONICA'S STORY, Andrew Morton can reveal the real Monica Lewinsky behind the sordid headlines. Like Morton's bestselling DIANA: HER TRUE STORY, the book will be based on long, tape-recorded interviews with the subject, her family and friends.

MONICA'S STORY will be published the same week the she finally breaks her silence in a special Barbara Walters interview, in late February. According to the New York Times, the two have already met:
"She is well-spoken. She is intelligent," Ms. Walters told The New York Times, "There's a lot not in the record--what this year has been like for her, what it felt like when the president made his statements, her reaction, her views on the various people involved, the jokes."

WE'VE HEARD FROM CLINTON, STARR, CONGRESS AND THE PUNDITS. NOW IT'S TIME FOR MONICA'S STORY.

Jacket photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312973624
• ISBN 13: 9780312973629
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 385