Book Review: PROMISE ME, DAD by Joe Biden

Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose by Joe Biden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"So how do I want to spend the rest of my life? I want to spend as much time as I can with my family, AND I want to help change the country and the world for the better. That duty does much more than give me purpose; it gives me something to hope for. It makes me nostalgic for the future."

Beautiful. This is more than a tribute to a much-loved son whom the father considered the better version of himself, who sadly passed away ahead of his time.

This is more than a summary of the most pressing national and international issues Joe Biden had to face as Obama's VP.

This is the very honest account of how a decent man did his best to serve his country AND his family, during a very difficult time.

I feel that, as is the case with every other book, the reader partly MAKES the book when we bring who we are into the reading. If one is a cynic, one could read this as sheer propaganda or a defense against political actions with imperfect consequences.

But I, for one, was deeply moved by the authenticity of Joe Biden's voice in the passages that mattered the most: the ones involving his family, or outlining his core beliefs (such as when he championed LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality).

Simply put: it is a wonderful tale of decency, at times very painful to read but always, always hopeful. And it should come with a warning to keep a box of tissue close by for the tears that surely will come.

Decency matters. Perseverance through hard times matters. There is much to learn, much to love, between these pages.

"I had come to understand that all good things are hard and take time. It might take a generation or more..." Joe Biden wrote. The important thing, no matter how much time there is left for us, is to "keep things moving in the right direction."

How wonderful that finally, in 2020, Joe Biden's time has come.

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