Personal Memoirs

My journey of reading one biography of each President naturally took me to Grant. I liked the one that I read (American Ulysses by Ronald C. White Jr.), but I was always curious about how Grant viewed his own Presidency when he wrote his memoirs. A few years later, I got the opportunity to listen to his memoirs, and I am sorry to say that this was a letdown for me. I did like the beginning, but overall, this is a book I respect more than I like.

Firstly, let me give some positives: This book is readable. I know that seems like a low bar, but for me, that is high praise. Many writers in the 1800's seem to write with exaggerated prose, writing in five words when one or two will do. Grant does not do that here, leading to a very straightforward writing style I enjoyed listening to.

This made the recounts of his early life fun to read. I especially liked how he talked of his trepidation and problems at West Point Military Academy. This made him seem more human, which is necessary, considering how much he can be mythologized in our modern media.

That's it. That is, sadly, all I have for a book that is 700 pages long.

Most of this book is filled with his recount of his actions of the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War. He describes his actions, orders he gave, and what he thought of those who served under him and with him. Sounds interesting, right? Well, with Grant's plain writing style, it amounts to him talking about giving orders to Colonel A to link up with Major B while they fight across River C before they get to camp. Then once they get to camp, they have to prepare for an ambush by the enemy commanded by Rebel Commander D, and so on. This subject matter, coupled with Grant's plain writing style means that this gets tedious quickly.

‘But what about his Presidency?' you ask, ‘Surely, that must have been good?” Well, I wouldn't know, because he doesn't write about it at all. He stops the book with the end of the war, skipping over his Presidency entirely. This fact alone forces me to wonder if this entire endeavor has been a waste, as if this was all for nothing.

So why do I give it two stars? Well, if you are a Civil War buff then you are going to love this book. And, for me, I give one star to books that I find have no redeeming value, and that is not the case at all. This book, sadly, just wasn't for me.