'Monica's Story'
By Andrew Morton
St. Martin's Press, $24.95
For those who have not yet had enough of Monica Lewinsky, this book is must-read material. The rest of us might want to take a pass.
The just-released "Monica's Story" is, of course, the breathless biography of Monica Lewinsky, the intern in her 20s whose sexual affair with President Clinton led to the president's impeachment. Written by Andrew Morton, author of fawning biographies of Princess Diana, "Monica's Story" offers a third-person account of the tawdry affair and its aftermath.
To Morton's credit, he offers just 35 pages of material concerning Monica's life before Washington, correctly guessing that few readers are interested in her childhood years. Morton launches the reader directly into Monica's arrival in Washington and her indiscretions with President Clinton. "Monica's Story," however, offers almost no salacious detail on the sexual encounters themselves. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's nearly pornographic report to Congress is the handy guide to cigars, stained dresses and the like.
Indeed, there isn't much new in this book not already reported or revealed in last week's interview by Barbara Walters with Lewinsky. Monica arrives as an intern in the White House, is captivated by the president's "sexuality," and finds an opportunity to flash her infamous "thong" underwear. They meet in the bathroom of his private study for their more intimate exchanges.
The descriptions of their encounters are striking for the wildly reckless nature of the arrangements. The book reveals the flaws in the two primary characters. Clinton anguishes over his infidelity and struggles to break it off with Monica, only to relapse with a hopeless lack of self-control into more sordid misbehavior. Monica becomes unable to accept that maybe this married man and sitting president might not want to continue the affair.
The most interesting portions of the book concern Lewinsky's betrayal by her "friend" Linda Tripp and Lewinsky's brutal treatment by Starr's agents. Tripp's treachery is stunning: from taping Lewinsky's phone calls to pleading with her to prevent the stained dress from being cleaned, to steering Lewinsky to use a delivery service from whom Tripp can secretly obtain copies of invoices for White House deliveries.
Although Lewinsky has been silenced by Starr from discussing her treatment at the hands of Starr's investigators in her media interviews, she is free from such restrictions in Morton's book. Held in a hotel room by armed FBI agents and seasoned prosecutors, she is confronted with two choices - "cooperation" by wearing a recording device to ensnare the president, his secretary and his friend Vernon Jordan, or facing prosecution and "27 years" in prison if she leaves the room or consults with her lawyer.
Her repeated requests to talk to her lawyer are refused. But more outrageous is this: her crime at that point was signing a false affidavit. Had she been allowed to contact her lawyer, she could have prevented the filing of the affidavit - a more serious crime.
Had enough? Don't buy this book. But "Monica's Story" does provide a voice for a humiliated woman who almost certainly wishes she never got a White House internship and fell in love with a married guy who worked there.
